original nonprofit

ppesf.ORG - 3D printed face shields

ROLE
cofounder

PURPOSE
COVID19 RELIEF

YEAR
2020

LOCATION
san francisco

PROJECT URL
ppeSF.org

PROJECT Instagram
instagram.ppeSF

together apart…

March 2020, the Covid-19 Pandemic unprecedented leaving the much of the world underprepared, including San Francisco. Our hospitals, clinics, and care facilities were not prepared with the shields and PPE they needed to safely combat the virus. Under the first shelter-in-place mandate, I teamed up with fellow California College of the Arts alumni, Ege Yener and Zoe McCloskey, to harness the creative power of the bay area maker community in an effort to alleviate the need for PPE in our community.

Our efforts began with a handful of CCA students using resources provided by the HybridLab. Every available 3D printer was checked out to students, constantly running in the background of remote classes. On the back-end we researched the many styles of 3D printed shields, sent samples to our nursing communities for feedback, and developed a website to spread our effort. The initiative grew as we welcomed volunteers who had their own 3D printers and laser cutters as well as those who could donate their time in a variety of ways.

In an effort to limit cross-contamination, we blocked out teams to handle each step in isolation. This process happened on a weekly basis.

  • The 3D files were sourced from our website. Sponsored by monetary donations, provided printing filament, gloves, ziplock bags, and cleaning supplies to those printing shields. The shield headband were deemed sanitized coming off the printer; it was therefor handled with gloves and a mask and placed in a clean ziplock bag.

  • Covering the entire bay area were a few badass friends on motorcycles. These few handled the packages with gloves and delivered them to our safe house. This pickup/delivery was an especially important so we did not put any of our student volunteers at risk by asking them to leave their homes.

  • The “clean house” was a space provided by a family who did not have a 3d printer but wanted to help. Here the headbands were sanitized a second time if necessary, transparency film was trimmed and hole-punched, and the PPE was packaged in sets of 25 with hydrogen peroxide that had been donated.

  • UCSF Professor, PhD, and amazing human, Jane Gitschier, then collected the donation and delivered it to the appropriate UCSF facility.

The world has shifted quite a bit since our beginnings in March 2020. UCSF has found the resources for shields through manufacturing, so our efforts have turned to aiding local clinics, the homeless community, schools, grocery stores, and nursing homes that may not have the funding for PPE.

 
 

ppeSF.org Donated Over 1,200 Shields

to UCSF and other bay area facilities (as of 12/2020)

 
 
Learn More here….

ppeSF.org donations reached a number of facilities that shared photos of their staff receiving their PPE. Thank you for sharing these photos with us!
If you are interested in volunteering or offering a donation, please visit ppeSF.org.