SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine — In the midst of the PPE shortage caused by the coronavirus, COVID-19 pandemic, two South Portland teachers are stepping up by using the school's technology and their free time to make PPE for those on the front lines.
Scott Trebilcick is using two of the school's 3D printers to assemble face shields. He has finished 15 and plans to make more. The first batch will go to Raymond Fire and Rescue, and he has an additional request for shields from the veteran's home in South Paris.
He also found plans for an extender that holds masks on people's faces. The extender allows the elastic to be held behind the person's ear without touching the ear. He has printed 40 of these and delivered 20 to Norway Nursing Home.
"We have a lot of technology, teachers in the state. They've been emailing back and forth about things that they can do to help. This particular pattern showed up on that thread so I started playing around with it," Trebilcick said.
Julie York, another teacher for South Portland High School, has been sewing face mask for those in need of them. She's sewn 200 masks over the past couple weeks and when she isn't doing that, she's also 3D printing the plastic extenders for the face masks. Julie tells us these extenders are especially useful for those who are wearing a face mask for a long period of time."
The back of the ear gets really hurt back there. So what it does is, by putting this on - I'll show you what it looks like on, it's really quite cool. It takes the stress off their ears backs the elastics are really hard on their ears and they're taking them on and off so frequently, they're taking them off all the time," York said.
At NEWS CENTER Maine, we're focusing our news coverage on the facts and not the fear around the illness. To see our full coverage, visit our coronavirus section, here: /coronavirus
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