You’ve doubtless heard about the crisis in finding personal protective equipment for medical providers during this Covid-19 virus pandemic.  Our own Health Center and the EMS team face shortages in the specialized masks and face shields they need to safely see patients.  Enter the problem-solving brain of Holly Fields.

Holly saw a CNN report (CNN: A doctor is 3D printing face masks to help meet the desperate need for protective gear) that got her attention: it was possible to print certain personal protective equipment on a 3-D printer. 

She wondered, “Why couldn’t we do that here?”

What happened next is a perfect example of the island multi-generational self-help network kicking in. 

Holly emailed me to ask “Is there a 3-D printer on the island?” I didn’t know, but I do know that librarians and teachers have superpowers, so we asked Melissa Olson, John van Dis and Jen McFarland.

They immediately jumped into action and got permission from Chuck Hamm to have Melissa Burns get access to the school’s 3-D printer. 

Melissa Olson contacted Ren Provy who got the 3-D printer from the library. 

Meanwhile, Holly tracked down more information from the inventers featured in the CNN report.

ICS middle school teacher, Cooper Cunliffe, who is sheltering in place in Belfast, gave the team an impromptu lesson in 3-D printing via email after his computer class “spent the afternoon compiling printer friendly .gx files from the STL models.” Got that?  Me neither, but it made sense to Ren.  Cooper, a true gentleman, wants to make sure the students in his class get credit for helping to sort this out.

As Holly notes, it takes a couple of go-rounds to get any prototypes right. 

As it turned out, the school’s printer is not big enough to print the masks or shield visors, but it will be big enough to print the grid that holds the protective filter in place (I found a substitute for the N95 filters thanks to a You Tube video: HEPA vacuum cleaner bags. The bags were available on Amazon and were delivered to my mailbox. Thank you, Mike McFarland!). 

Luckily, the library printer is the right size to print the other medical equipment.

Holly coordinated with Derreth Roberts who is helping out at the Health Center, to make sure the 3-D printed items were what the Health Center staff could use. Holly is still working on tracking down the right material for the reusable face shields that will fit into the printed visors. 

Jim Nelson donated one of his used shields to use as a pattern for the clear vinyl of the right thickness that David Runion Bareford located at Viking. 

All of this is happening in the context of social distancing.  It happened via phone and email for the most part, except for the picking up of the printers and items, and even then, care was taken to keep safe distances.

In thinking about the previous 48 hours when all of his got accomplished, Holly said: “We’re not engineers, but we don’t have this equipment.  We had to be creative.  We want to be ready if this equipment is needed.  This was a good trial run!”

Meanwhile, the Health Center managed to locate six face shields to purchase, a feat in itself.  So, between the purchased equipment and the back-up homemade 3-D equipment, all of which can be cleaned and re-used, we should be getting close to meeting the medical providers’ needs for face shields. 

The 3-D printed N95 mask still needs some work. The edges are too rough to wear comfortably or to seal against the skin. 

Holly will try the soft rope caulk that goes around windows to see if that solves that problem.  Plus, Sewing Circle is kicking into gear for production of cloth masks. 

It’s amazing the difference one person can make, isn’t it?

Holly not only had a great idea, she saw it through to completion with the contributions of everyone involved. This story reminds us of what we can do when we have to, and what we can accomplish when we work together.