Cover of Madison Magazine's January 2021 issue with a nurse wearing a face shield and mask

Innovation is a monthly column in Madison Magazine covering startups, entrepreneurism, and innovative ideas coming out of Dane County, Wisconsin.

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Shift to Shields

Steve Grundahl puts his Blue Mounds business to work by making protective face gear for medical personnel.

Madison Magazine monthly Innovation column, June 2020

Magazine opened to page with article called When Safer at Home Isn't

The day after Midwest Prototyping founder Steve Grundahl made the news with the protective Badger Shields his company was assembling for University Hospital, he got a call from the Driftless Historium in Mount Horeb. The museum wants one of the face shields for its collection.

“That was probably the strangest feeling in all of this,” Grundahl said, at a time when things have never felt stranger. We all sense we’re living through history in the making as the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds, but for Grundahl the museum’s phone call turned an abstract idea into something tangible — which is exactly what he’s been doing for 20 years at Midwest Prototyping.

To continue reading please pick up the June 2020 issue of Madison Magazine at area newsstands, or click through to the online version here.

—Maggie Ginsberg is an associate editor at Madison Magazine and a long-time award-winning freelance writer. Innovation is her monthly column for Madison Magazine focused on startups, entrepreneurism and innovative ideas coming out of Dane County, Wisconsin.

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