OKOTOKS – A unique Christmas gift a now 13-year-old Okotoks boy received two years ago may help save the lives of health-care personnel in the Foothills.
Owen Plumb, a Grade 9 student at École Beausoleil, found a 3-D printer under the tree and now he’s making PPE shields which he hopes will be distributed to those working at High River Hospital, the Okotoks Wellness Centre and health centres in the Foothills area.
“When I got it, I didn't think I would have to combat a crisis, it just turned out that way,” said Plumb. “It’s good that we have the printer.”
Plumb has made approximately 100 PPE face shields which are now stored in plastic at his family’s Okotoks home – waiting to be shipped out to help those fighting the crisis.
The face-shields protect the face from spray and liquids.
He got the idea after Prusa Research, from Prague in the Czech Republic, sent out a request to the 3-D printer global community to help build the shields. The instructions are on the Prusa Research website.
“I thought ‘I’ve got a printer and it’s not really doing very much right now,’ so I started printing them,” Plumb said on April 3. “A couple of weeks ago, I spent the weekend researching where I could find parts and the necessary plastic to make them.
“About 10 days ago I started manufacturing them.”
The head bands are made first and separated. The shields are later made, attached to the head bands and then the entire face shield is packaged.
Extreme care is taken with the shields when they are being packaged.
“Whenever we are handling the masks we are wearing face shields, we wear gloves and we put them instantly into sealed bags so there are no risks of cross-contamination,” Plumb said. “When they are done, they are put in a big bag and left for a few days."
At present, Plumb is awaiting authorization from Health Canada for distribution.
“These are made to support local health care workers, High River Hospital, family practitioners in Okotoks – they may not get as many face shields as workers in hospitals in Calgary,” Plumb said. “We’re making sure that the demand is met everywhere… It’s a personal project to support our local health-care heroes."
He said he’s been in contact with an Okotoks family physicians group.
“We asked if there is any demand and they said: ‘Go for it,’” Plumb said. “We are looking to manufacture a 100 to start and go from there.”
They are already at the 100 mark and they hope to distribute the shields in batches of 400.
At present they can produce about one per hour.
“Right now, we are doing about 12 per day, but we are hoping to advance that to more like 24 per day if we can get this fully automated,” he said.
The community has come through in helping build the masks, which Plumb estimates cost about $2 each.
“The Okotoks Rotary Club has donated money to help cover production costs,” Plumb said. “We are basically running off donations. We’re not selling these.”
They aren’t doing it alone.
He said there are other members of the community are assisting with the 3-D printing, adding it is helping to bring the community together.
It’s not the first time Plumb and friends have done impressive work.
He is a member of the Stratobots, a team from FIRST Robotics Okotoks, which won the FIRST Tech Challenge in Calgary on Feb. 1 by making sure the robot it built, Geoffrette followed orders. Some of the parts of Geoffrette were built using the Plumbs’ 3-D printer.
The team was a finalist at provincials in Calgary in March – prior to COVID-19 cancelling practically every event in Canada.
There is a gofundme page to help fund the face shield project and there is also a Facebook.
