Psi U Red Leader at the MakeItThrough Alliance creates team to create masks for first responders. Jean-Etienne LaVallee EI’94 (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute)  lives in Richmond, VA and is also a huge member of the “maker” community there – designers and fabricators who use 3d printing and machining skills to make just about anything. With the onset of the pandemic Etienne and his friends Larkin Garbee, Adam Gainer, Bert Green, & Jeff Rock launched the Starwars themed “MakeItThru Alliance” to produce medical community approved face shields.  Assembled from approved materials in a sterile environment, the Alliance has made over 15,000, starting with a donation of 500 to friends in the Navajo Nation. They have since donated many more to native tribes, extended care and clinical facilities in Virginia and elsewhere. They completed the “Shields Across the Alliance” sprint campaign at their Echo Base Safe Assembly Center in conjunction with Alliance partners in RVA Project Shield   (covid-19 response) and GOODHEALTHTaskForce.

He writes “Our team of only 9 @MakeItThru Alliance volunteer Assemblators produced 4000 units of the “Goodshield 1000” flexible face shield design in less than 4 days! In total, our cross-Alliance effort produced over 10,000 face shields in less than a week which will be on local HCP caregivers heads within the next 48hrs.”

Of the shields produced at Echo Base, 3500 will be heading to the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Southside and the remaining units will be going to Bon Secours and other local HCPs. If you’d like to contribute to his ongoing efforts, you can do so here.
MakeItThrough is also a valuable resource if you have question about how to use you maker skills and resources to help medical personnel in your area; contact them at makeitthru@goodworksociety.org

 If you would like to purchase a faceshield while also donating here is their “Good Store” donation shop: https://www.goodworksociety.org/store/c3/GOODSHIELD2000.html

Learn more about their work here !