Helping hand

The Sledge Distillery and Granbury Drug are working together to lend a sanitized hand to the community during the coronavirus crisis.

The distillery is providing 190-proof alcohol to the drugstore to use in making hand sanitizer. These days, demand isn’t keeping up with the supply and store shelves are often empty.

Granbury Drug specializes in compounds, or customized medicine, co-owner and pharmacist Gamze Strain said. Her husband Todd attended Granbury High School with Mark and Susan Sledge, owners of the Sledge Distillery and event venue in Tolar.

Gamze created a formula for germ-destroying hand sanitizer, and it even has a special touch: Thieves Essential Oil.

“It has a really appealing smell and a lovely texture,” she said.

The Strains and the Sledges are calling the concoction Hand Shine - a nod to the Sledge’s family-recipe moonshine.

Gamze realized after making her first batch - which was for a Fort Worth yoga studio that was having trouble finding hand sanitizer in stores - that making the disinfectant with Everclear was costly.

That’s when she thought of the Sledges. Their collaboration began last week.

“Our margins are super low,” Susan said. “We’re basically donating all of our labor and time. It’s basically a public service thing.”

The first batch of 50 bottles “were gone in 30 minutes” after a Granbury Drug employee posted about the locally made product on her Facebook page, Gamze said.

The pharmacist said that she had trouble finding bottles at first, but on Thursday she and an employee Molly Beauchamp were able to fill about 300 plastic containers.

Those in need of hand sanitizer can come by the drugstore from 9 a.m. to noon today. Customers can practice the recommended social distancing by using the drive-through.

As for the Sledges, they plan to have drive-through hours at their distillery from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. today for those who want to buy the product.

Sledge Distillery is located at 8210 Paluxy Hwy. Granbury Drug is at 602 S. Morgan St.

Granbury Drug sells 4-ounce bottles of Hand Shine for $15. Sledge Distillery sells 2-ounce bottles for $10.99.

The women said that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, which regulates the Sledges’ industry, have both granted permission for businesses to do this type of collaboration during the shortage caused by the pandemic.

For now the bottles don’t have the name Hand Shine on the label because there is not enough room after all the other information required by law is listed.

Gamze said she is working to replenish the supply of the hand sanitizer every three or four days.

The Strains and the Sledges have a motto for their collaboration: “Hood County Healthy in 2020.”

“I’m really excited about it,” Susan said about the partnership that is providing a service to her hometown. “I think it’s fun. We’re all using our gifts and talents and resources, and there is a need. We’re just doing what we can.”