Henrico Schools CTE staffers make face shields for healthcare workers

With supply chains disrupted across the country, a group of Henrico County Public Schools teachers have taken it upon themselves to use the resources at their disposal to build and donate protective face shields to healthcare workers in their community.

Dan Stooks, an education specialist for the HCPS Career and Technical Education program said that he was restless the first weekend schools were closed and knew there was something more that staff members could do to help.

“There was a lot of news about folks starting to 3-D print things,” he told the Citizen. So the following Monday, he and Mac Beaton, the director of the CTE program, got on a Zoom call with some other CTE staff members and began to brainstorm ideas.

“They said yeah, we can definitely do this.”

So they began to work.

The CTE teachers and staff are using a template that was made public by the National Institutes of Health, with slight modifications due to challenges in the supply chain.

“Some of the teachers had to make little modifications to the designs,” said Stooks. But even with the supply chain interrupted for the materials that the NIH recommended, the CTE staff was able to make changes and produce a viable product. “We are making face shields along with ear savers that go on the backs of the masks to provide comfort while wearing the masks all day.”

The logistics of this project have come together because of the support that HCPS officials have given to the technology education programs, Stooks and Beaton said.

“A lot of the equipment was already in place. Our CTE staff went to seven or eight different schools across the district to collect our 3-D printers.” said Stooks. Staffers then set up the equipment in a method to ensure their own safety as they worked on the project. “We set them up in one location so we can have our teachers only entering one building to minimize contact at our schools. We had access to one particular classroom.”

While they would like students to be involved, they do not currently have any students assisting the CTE staff with the project.

“Our production cycle is two or three print times per day, so we have a staff member going in at three different times throughout the day,” said Stooks. “The only time we have more than one person on site is when we are doing our assemblies and we have about five people inside different parts of the classroom spread out.”

Beaton says that Amtek Company, a resource that several school districts on the east coast use for technical solutions and equipment has been instrumental in helping the CTE staff with its project. When Stooks pitched the idea to his contact within the company and asked for a demo 3-D printer to help increase capacity, Amtek only asked one question.

“They said sure, where is it going?” he recalled.

The group began delivering its first batch of 100 shields Monday. Stooks and Beaton are using their connections from the nursing programs within HCPS to find out which facilities are in need and can receive the shields. Parham Health and Rehab and Henrico Health and Rehab received the first batches of equipment this week. CTE staff members aer communicating with other facilities throughout the county as they are working on the next batch of shields that will be ready next Monday. The shields also are being utilized to protect volunteers that are helping distribute meals to HCPS families.

In addition to producing the protective gear, the CTE staff has printed yard signs thanking nurses, which they’re placing at 32 nursing homes throughout Henrico County. The request for the yard sign project came from the Henrico Division of Fire, Beaton said.

HCPS spokesperson Andy Jenks applauded the CTE teachers and staff for their efforts.

“Our Workforce and Career Development team continues to set new and higher standards for ‘wowing’ the world of public education with new and innovative ideas for supporting the community while demonstrating the enormous value of Career and Technical Education in Henrico County,” Jenks said.

The CTE staff intends to produce this equipment for as long as possible, or for as long as their services are needed.

“We have additional supplies that are arriving this week,” said Stooks. “As long as there is a need for the community, we are planning to continue making them.”