Former Red Willow resident Terry Howlett has been residing in Las Vegas for more than 19 years, and for good measure.
His product, DermSafe PC, is headquartered in Vegas — and arrived in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, last week to help Canadian athletes maintain a more hygienic routine.
“People are always surprised that I am a Canadian living in Vegas and I think I am surprised too,” said Howlett. “Like most people, you really never forget your roots and as a Canadian I think we have a disposition that people like to do business with, and that includes honesty, integrity and hard work.”
Howlett was in Stettler just a few weeks back to celebrate and participate in the 50-year school reunion.
“I couldn’t have enjoyed myself more,” said Howlett. “It doesn’t matter where you live, but it does matter where you came from.”
When Howlett heard about the water conditions in Rio, he couldn’t believe how bad it was but he also knew that he had to do something to help the Canadian athletes.
“Dave, a shareholder from London, Ont. contacted me about a story he read about the Rio water conditions and I knew I had to do something,” Howlett added. “I immediately contacted the sailing team and was referred to the Medical Director for the Canadian Olympics. The response was immediate, encouraging and incredibly positive.”
Howlett said that the Canadian team members, from the athletes to the coaches and the doctors to the support staff, all work very hard to reach this moment. Howlett and his staff are honoured to help in any way they can.
“We are so honoured to even in a small way be helping our Canadian athletes go for gold,” explained Howlett. “Now that DermSafe has arrived in Rio and (has been) distributed, we are receiving daily emails from them thanking us for our support.”
Howlett said that alcohol hand sanitizers work to get rid of the germs that have been picked up by our hands.
“DermSafe PC on the other hand acts like a protective glove that you apply before becoming in contact with germs so that you are already protected when you encounter them,” said Howlett. “Since DermSafe is a lotion without alcohol, it does not dry out the skin, in fact our skin technology called Invisicare® helps protect your skin from drying.”
Howlett went on to say how most people are surprised to see that DermSafe is a white lotion; just like a hand lotion but a “whole lot more powerful”.
Some of the features of DermSafe that Howlett wanted to point out includes that it kills 99.9 per cent of harmful germs and has proven protection from chlorhexidine gluconate (CHG), an ingredient used in hospitals worldwide for over 60 years.
“It’s an added level of defence which forms an invisible polymer glove on your hands,” added Howlett. “It has been a long process with DermSafe but I believe our perseverance has paid off, even though we have spent a large amount of money on research and development of DermSafe.”
Howlett further said that the process to get DermSafe to Rio was a multi-faceted participation by many people.
“We would like to especially thank the Canadian Olympic Foundation, thank you Katie Cheesbrough, Dr. Robert McCormack, Canadian Olympic Medical Director, Ken Dool, High Performance Director of Sail Canada and Air Canada who assisted with transporting DermSafe,” said Howlett.