Why I’m pausing everything to make Face Shields

A week ago I had the realization that if our healthcare professionals fighting COVID go down, we all go down. After a few weeks in quarantine and watching the news every day, I decided that I would stop feeling helpless and try to help. I have a few tools, so I started to think about how best to use them. I have a design background as well, so I designed a minimal face shield and made the files open source.

“Nothing is more important right now for humanity than making sure our frontline is safe.”

The company I founded, uses a laser cutter to make air fresheners out of wood. So my idea was to use that same laser cutter and make face shields instead. I made the decision to reduce my product sales in order to be able to focus more attentively on making face shields.

I redesigned the site to reflect the new project and with the help of a Shopify programmer named Patrick, I was able to set it up so that we could take donations from people to help support the cost of materials. I also set up a google form so that healthcare professionals in need can fill it out and request shields.

“I knew there was a shortage, but I didn’t know it was this bad.”

The requests have started to pour in, and now it’s a race to get as many shields made as possible.

The challenge is that currently, our requests for shields are about two times more than our donations. This is why I’m reaching out. We need more donations to cover the cost of materials and shipping. You can help by sharing this project and donating face shields. Nothing is more important right now for humanity than making sure our frontline is safe. Thank you for reading this. Please practice physical distancing.

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