Nathan McKenzie is a hero for our time. He works as on the maintenance crew at the Mansion Assisted Care Facility in Cambridge, N.Y., where I work as a volunteer. We are helping him purchase a new hi-tech Disinfectant Fogging system for the Mansion.

Nathan has watched the corona Pandemic strike especially hard and cruelly in overwhelmed and mostly underfunded elder care facilities and nursing homes.

I am impressed by this young man – his skill, articulateness, directness, and compassion, for the elderly people and young aides in his care.

He could well be saving lives. I wanted you to meet him for yourself.

Natha decided to do something about it the very grave threat endangering elder care facilities across America. He began studying new, highly efficient and effective Disinfectant Fogging Systems, which spray a room in seconds without harming people or furniture and kill more than 99.9 of all bacteria they encounter.

They are the future, being used in airports and corporate office buildings, and soon, in stadiums, restaurants and concert halls. And the newest ones don’t use chemicals at all.

At the Mansion, an older, two-story sprawling home to residents and their aides, the staff is exhausted following the state mandate to disinfect every surface in the building three times a day.

Mansion administrators are desperate to fend off the virus that is killing so many elderly people.

They have to wipe every surface in this aging building by hand, three times a day.

This is not only exhausting for them, but it also takes them away from their primary work, which is caring for the residents.

Nathan took it on himself to research the newest, safest system for the residents and the people who care for them.

He found a Disinfectant Fogging system using electrolysis and saltwater and began searching for the funds to buy and install it.

The Mansion itself is absorbed in fending off the coronavirus and can’t help right now to buy the system, but they will support it as we go along as best we can. So will I.

Nathan contacted me and I agreed to help and called out the Army Of Good. I’m so glad he asked for our help.

He asked for as much of the $2,9876.70 total cost as we could raise, and I offered to try to get all of it.

The handheld fogger itself – it can do in seconds what it now takes hours to do and is much safer and more effective – costs $899.  The cases of disinfectant refills for this system in the Mansion will cost almost $2,000 for a year.

Home foggers cost much less, but the state-mandated regulations for disinfecting the Mansion are much more complex, and the space much larger.

Nathan is already talking to the state health authorities about learning how to make his own disinfectant for the Mansion Fogger. He’s learning how to do it.

I put up a request for these funds early Saturday morning, and I’ve already raised close to $2,500 and I thank you.

I hope to raise the remaining funds today, but we already have enough money to purchase the system and start putting it into place. That is wonderful news, and just in the nick of time.

If necessary, I will support buying the refills as we go along. But I think we can pull the whole thing off right now, people are eager to support Nathan’s work.

The coronavirus is taking many lives in New York and other states in nursing homes and elder care facilities. These residences are natural incubators for the spread of a virus and the Mansion is working frantically to keep the residents healthy.

Nathan, on his own initiative and with impressive engineering skills, has stepped up, did his homework, reached out, and will have what he needs – I promised him that, and will keep my promise. I’m putting up as much of my own money as I can and encouraging Nathan to keep his $100, I know what he is paid.

I’m close and grateful for your help. If you wish to help, that would be great: Via Paypal, it’s [email protected], by check, Jon Katz, Fogger, P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816.

Any overage will go into the Mansion fund and will be used to support the residents during this very hard time for them. Thanks.