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Finding a better way

Jack-of-all trades makes a better mask, virtual home repairs

News Photo by Julie Riddle Alpena creative Josh Niedzwiecki displays his upgraded face mask design at Duck Park in Alpena on a recent afternoon.

ALPENA — There had to be a better way, Josh Niedzwiecki thought.

One of the scores of essential workers who kept plugging away at their jobs when other Northeast Michiganders were sent home over COVID-19 concerns, Niedzwiecki believes there’s always a better way to do things, from cleaning medical offices after-hours to creating virtual worlds to protecting lungs from the coronavirus.

The longtime Alpena resident, by day a jack-of-all-trades contractor who handles jobs from planning kitchen remodels to fixing faucets to designing store displays, moonlights in medical offices, cleaning the spaces trusted by doctors and patients to be sterile and safe.

For both jobs, he said, it was crucial he be cautious with his own health to avoid transferring the virus to anyone else, especially with a wife who works in health care.

While his contracting job has always demanded the use of face masks, when the coronavirus hit, new masks became hard to come by. For a while, he was struggling to do his work even before businesses were closed because he didn’t have the safety gear he needed.

News Photo by Julie Riddle An essential worker dedicated to finding a better way to do things, Josh Niedzwiecki cleans a medical office in Alpena on a recent weeknight.

An artist — who once envisioned a career creating artwork for comic book companies — with a knack for finding new ways to do things, Niedzwiecki examined the mask designs he found online and decided they could be done better.

Rattling off information about thread counts and fabric blends like a professional, Niedzwiecki — who had never used a sewing machine before last month — described how he deconstructed the typical face mask design, building in its place something that has the filtration of an N-95 mask and is so comfortable he’s forgotten to take his off before getting in the shower.

Reinvention has been a part of his contracting business, too, as he found new ways to provide clients with the services they need during the governor’s order that Michiganders stay home unless absolutely necessary.

Without either of them leaving home, he can do in-person work at a client’s home through the use of technology, present at his client’s side through a screen as he teaches them to do work themselves, overseeing their progress every step of the way.

The pandemic has challenged businesses, from independent contractors to megastores, he said. But there’s no reason they can’t rise to the occasion, see what help their customers need, and figure out a way to make it happen.

After a full day of work and an evening spent cleaning buildings crucial to people’s health, Niedzwiecki spends more hours at home, preparing training videos and teaching sessions for people who have asked for his help.

For decades a dungeon master for 400 online groups of the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons, Niedzwiecki gave that game an upgrade some years ago, creating a version that lets players explore a fantasy world faster, longer, and better.

Slowed not a bit by the challenge of a pandemic, the essential worker keeps working, finding ways to keep people’s homes functioning and lives moving forward, all on only a few hours of sleep a night.

He even took an order from a family who missed their spring vacation, using his artistic skills to draw them relaxing in Florida.

Whatever problem arises — from fixing a riding mower to protecting a country from a virus — there’s always a solution, Niedzwiecki said.

You just have to find a better way to do it.

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