Newmarket’s decommissioned Hollingsworth Arena has been transformed into a hub for medical face shields that are in critically short supply as the global coronavirus pandemic grinds on.
Aurora resident Seamus O’Hara, a photographer and filmmaker with a 3-D printer who wanted to help equip frontline health-care workers with personal protective equipment, launched a collective of like-minded makers less than one month ago to do just that.
And since the Ontario PPE Collective was born, a team of about 70 volunteers have printed, assembled, sanitized, and delivered just under 1,000 visors to area health-care settings, including COVID-19 units at hospitals, long-term care facilities, and health clinics.
“I decided I had to get involved somehow, I couldn’t sit idly by,” said O’Hara, whose profession is deemed non-essential during Ontario’s state of emergency and therefore temporarily shut down. “I came across groups who were 3-D printing face shields and reached out to them because it’s something I could do, but they weren’t taking single volunteers.”
“So, I thought I might as well start my own group,” O’Hara said, who acts as the network project coordinator.
The Art in Flight photography and videography owner approached Aurora-based STEM Minds to get the idea off the ground. Newmarket’s makerspace, NewMakeIt followed soon after as a partner, and the Newmarket Public Library also got on board.
NewMakeIt and STEM Minds each have 10 3-D printers running around the clock, and the local library donated a metric ton of PET plastic after much searching for the hot commodity during the public health crisis.
Each face shield takes about four hours in total to print and costs about $3.
“The plastic was absolutely critical for this operation,” said O’Hara. “It’s difficult to get any sort of small quantity because most of it is taken by the bulk orders. At least for now, we’re covered.”
That’s enough plastic to make 18,000 visors, which is a good thing, O’Hara said, because right now the collective has requests from frontline workers, including personal support workers, for 6,000 face shields.
Upward of 35 individuals across the GTA with 3-D printers volunteered to be part of the network, and work in their own space printing the open-source Prusa face shield. The design is not approved by Health Canada as the cost for private lab testing is prohibitive, O’Hara said.
The collective is actively searching for an open-source Health Canada-approved model and has applied for a grant to push its current model through testing.
The Prusa face shield is widely accepted as PPE because of its level of protection when combined with other equipment such as goggles and masks, ease of modification, and comfort after prolonged use, said O’Hara.
Donors contributed old-fashioned cash to help pay for supplies, including a kilometre-and-a-half of elastic band to hold the face shield on to the head, gas for volunteer drivers, and filament for the printers in the network.
Another 35 people signed on to assemble and sanitize the face shields at the Patterson Street arena, which scaled up quickly.
“They’re printing those around the clock, so we’re getting hundreds and hundreds of parts per week printed by all these volunteers,” O’Hara said. “A single person can help but they’re not able to supply a hospital with 200 face shields, it would take them ages to do it. When we are grouped like this, we’re able to put out hundreds and hundreds a week, which can help these larger demands that have come in.”
Just yesterday, a full crew of volunteers turned up at the Hollingsworth Arena to receive and sanitize a donation of 1,000 face shields, courtesy of Kitchener’s 3-D printers, InkSmith Education Technology.
Once at the Hollingsworth intake and sanitization facility, the visors will get logged, any sharp edges will be removed, they’ll get a dish detergent bath, then a 20-minute soak in a bleach solution, a rinse and will dry for half an hour on a rack before being packaged for delivery.
“It’s been amazing setting up this network,” said O’Hara. “Drivers are going out all through the week picking up all these parts and bringing them to the Hollingsworth Arena, routes are planned and the logistics of it is quite insane, to be honest.”
“Mayor John Taylor was extremely quick to react and within hours put us in contact with the town’s facilities service manager. We had an on-site visit the next morning and within a week we were in Hollingsworth,” he said. “It was absolutely outstanding. We were expecting a bit of delay as to be expected, but the mayor moved so quickly I was impressed by it.”
“The arena is good because it allows us to have our stations set up about six to 10 feet away from each other so our volunteers can maintain that social distancing and, of course, they’re wearing masks and gloves and being extremely cautious with the shields,” said O’Hara.
Right now, the collective has issued a call for skilled volunteers that have experience with management and logistics and individuals with 3-D printers that can be put to use to make face shields.
“Those are the main areas where we need volunteer help, individuals who can manage 30 people with different outputs from all over the GTA, scheduling routes, and people with 3-D printers who are being turned away from the larger groups,” he said.
To get involved with the Ontario PPE Collective and to donate, visit here.