BY CAMI KOONS
As the coronavirus continues to spread and health care facilities race to keep up, some Eudora community members are using tools and skills they have available to help.
Eudora Middle School eighth grader Campbell Mayer and Eudora Elementary School fourth grade teacher Kania Shain are making supplies for essential medical employees. Mayer has sewn surgical masks and Shain is creating adaptors for ventilators.
Mayer agreed to sew surgical masks for the Eudora Animal Hospital after being asked to help out by family friend George Schreiner, one of the owners and veterinarians. She has taken sewing classes for the past two years.
Mayer said her mom found the pattern online and helped her cut some of the fabric, but Mayer did all of the sewing. She made 25 purple masks for the Eudora Animal Hospital and 30 additional masks for Lawrence Memorial Hospital out of fabric she already had.
“I think it’s just cool that I can do it for people and I can help them out,” Mayer said.
Schreiner said he couldn’t find masks anywhere for his staff to wear. He thought Mayer would just make a few but was shocked at how many she “whipped out” and how soon she showed up to deliver them.
“We were wanting something for our staff to wear and so they started wearing the purple masks she made,” Schreiner said. “We really like them.”
Shain didn’t sew masks, but instead used the 3D printer from her fourth grade classroom to print adaptors to transform a snorkeling mask into a respirator mask for Dr. Ryan Neuhofel at NeuCare in Lawrence.
Shain said Jessica Love, a nurse practitioner at NeuCare and parent of one of Shain’s fourth graders, reached out to her with the idea. The company Ocean Reef Group released free plans for printing adaptors to their snorkeling masks. The adaptor attaches to the mask where the snorkel would normally go, and a filter is attached on top of it.
Shain said she took the printer home thinking school would only be canceled for a few weeks. She wanted to keep printing her students’ projects, but never thought she would use it for something like this.
Shain said a lot of what she teaches her students with the printer is its ability to fill in production and create products that help in various fields.
“What’s really neat as a teacher is for us to look at [videos and uses of 3D printers] and now apply our resources and help out,” Shain said.
Shain said since her story began spreading around the community, she received several voicemails from others wanting to replicate the idea.
The work from both Shain and Mayer has not gone unnoticed. Mitch Tegtmeier, the eighth grade physical education and health teacher, said Mayer submitted her masks as her “do something awesome” project he assigned on Thursday, though she had been working on masks before receiving the assignment.
“This is more just about her being very awesome and wanting to do something for our community,” Tegtmeier said.
Reach reporter Cami Koons at eudoratimes@gmail.com.
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