March 29, 2024

No ‘I’ in ‘Creston’

Community volunteers produce and provide necessary equipment during pandemic

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As the new coronavirus pandemic persists, communities across the nation are experiencing shortages of personal protective equipment such as face masks, hospital gowns and face shields.

With shortages set to intensify, members of the community have been taking the efforts into their own hands, such as Creston technology and instructional assistant Teri Keeler.

“I had seen on the news were other schools were printing PPE,” said Keeler. “I thought I would try it just to see if it would work or not.”

Keeler said Wayne Pantini, executive director of the Union County Development Association, had emailed the CAST program facilitator Maggie Arnold after having spoken with with Jo Duckworth of Union County Emergency Management.

“Wayne said they needed some and he wondered if we could print them,” said Keeler. “I said I had already started it.”

Other CCSD staff have assisted by using the district’s other 3D printers, such as John Thomson at the middle school and Bill Mullin at the high school.

“We’ve decided on one design, and we are going to start printing those out as soon as we can,” said Mullin. “The two designs we looked at, one took nine hours to print while the other takes about two hours to print. Fortunately, the one they picked is the one that takes two hours to print.”

“It’s actually just the frame for the face shield,” said Keeler. “The template I found has transparency sheets for it, and so we found some at the high school and it worked pretty well.”

As of now, the staff said the school has enough supplies to continue producing the masks without issue.

“We have the supplies at the school with our 3D printer,” said Keeler. “We’ve got spools of the material.”

“I’ve got quite a bit of material in my classroom, I could probably print a couple dozen if I needed, we just aren’t certain how many they need at the moment,” said Mullin.

Mullin said he has one student, sophomore Aiden Evans, who has been using their personal 3D printer to make PPE as well.

“I was meeting with one of my classes and one of my students said they were messing around with his 3D printer,” said Mullin. “His mom works at the hospital and he was already printing out the little clips that goes behind the head to clip to face masks.”

Union County Emergency Management had also reached out to Patches and Pieces Quilt Guild, who had originally had been asked by Greater Regional Health to sew hundreds of masks for the facility.

“In the very beginning, we were asked to make surgical masks for the hospital,” said Cinda Long of Patches and Pieces Quilt Guild . “We brought those up to American Home Design Center and cut out 700 kits.”

Long said the demand for reusable fabric masks led to partnering with Union County Emergency Management and eventually EveryStep Hospice.

“That kind of got us on a roll there,” said Long. “EveryStep asked us if we could make gowns because they have paper ones, so every time they go into somebody’s home they have to destroy that gown.”

Long said the community assistance extends beyond members of the guild, with others helping with sewing and donating material.

“It just turned out that every time I run out of something, someone has been able to step forward and donate it,” said Long. “I have a pink tote on my front porch and I have a couple people that will cut out patterned fabric and drop them off to me and I will add Velcro and ribbon ties to it, making it into a kit. I then leave it on the front porch and people pick them up and take them sewing, so if there are other sewers out there, we have the pattern.”

Even 13 year-old Emma Bolton has helped to provide supply by sewing her own protective masks.

“One day I just got out my sewing machine and made myself a mask,” said Bolton. “Everyone started liking it, and my mom had some of her friends order some, and it went from there.”

So far, Bolton has made 25 masks, with 16 more currently being produced. She said she hopes her actions have an impact, and she believes everyone should do what they can to assist others during trying times.

“It’s important to help so everyone is safe and nobody gets sick,” said Bolton.

The out pour of assistance has been eye-opening, said Jo Duckworth, coordinator of Union County Emergency Management.

“The community has been doing a wonderful job,” said Duckworth. “I cannot express how heartwarming this is and how grateful we are for their time, effort and donations.”