TALENT, Ore. — With the growing shortage of personal protective equipment across the state and the country, a local non-profit is building face masks and shields from scratch.
“We’re makers, we identify problems and find solutions,” said Ryan Wilcoxson, executive director of Talent Maker City.
Local non-profit, Talent Maker City, is gearing up to fight coronavirus… one face mask at a time.
“We have the equipment, we have the know-how we have the community who is chomping at the bit to help and this is how we can do it,” he said.
Wilcoxson says the non-profit will be handing out sewing patterns and kits to community members who want to make N-95 masks from home.
“Those will be sewn out of muslin, cotton fabric, and some elastic,” he said.
They’re also making face shields using 3-D printing technology.
“The files are designed on a computer, that computer file is taken in a machine that runs that file to create something like this in about three hours,” said Wilcoxson.
Wilcoxson says the work has already begun.
“We’re making two of them right now every five hours that will probably go up to 6 and 9 every five hours,” he said.
But the non-profit is still working to create a pattern that any 3-D printer in the Rogue Valley can follow.
“It’s a crowdsource thing where everyone will be able to grab that file from our website or somewhere else,” he said.
And support from the community already, Wilcoxson says, has been overwhelming.
“It’s just a big group of volunteers who are all working on their own dime and their own time to make this happen,” said Wilcoxson. “It’s really a beautiful community effort.”
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