6 minute read
Behind the masks
BEHIND THE MASKS A Central Florida man is 3D-printing masks around the clock to provide protection for his fellow essential workers
BY LILLIAN HERNÁNDEZ CARABALLO
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As Americans, none of us are unfamiliar with the notion of chipping in to help out a friend with medical bills. GoFundMe pages for expensive surgeries and treatments are commonplace for most of us. We choose which cases are most deserving of our hard-earned money, even when we ourselves may have a few unpaid medical bills lying around.
This is the standard, the “before” picture of the American healthcare system. A system that we – for whatever reason – have chosen to accept, nearly unchanged, for years. It’s a system that, up to now, has worked to keep about 72 million Americans on Medicaid and about another 44 million uninsured altogether, with the most tragic cases noted merely by a sorry shake of the head.
In the new world of COVID-19, however, the weaknesses of this healthcare industry are becoming harder to ignore.
Though widely addressed by now, just a few weeks ago, news feeds were filled with stories of first responders and healthcare workers on the front lines of this pandemic without proper PPE. In late March and early April, the need was so great that hospital-themed movie and TV productions were donating their medical props to the trillion-dollar healthcare industry to protect workers.
The shortage was also affecting others in our communities, like non-hospital essential workers and the elderly. With not enough personal protective gear to go around, and with healthcare workers needing most of it, people started fashioning their own makeshift masks. Unfortunately, many were not safe to help contain spreading, but without resources we had no other choice.
Many of us are still having a hard time finding safety products in ransacked stores or reasonably priced masks online, if they’re even in stock. Given that this pandemic is changing the world as we know it, it looks like the need for these masks is not going away any time soon.
But not everyone is reacting to this with the proverbial thoughts and prayers. Some people, like Davenport local Jason Mencer, have decided to act. His Facebook fundraiser, simply called “3D Printing for Healthcare & Essential Workers,” raised well over its $2,500 projected goal and has delivered close to 500 masks to people all over the U.S.
Mencer is himself an “essential worker,” employed with Amtrak for the last 10 years, seven of them serving the customers of the south of downtown Orlando station, right by Orlando Health’s Regional Medical Center. Working so close to healthcare workers, Mencer says he has many friends in the field.
He’s also got an entrepreneurial spirit and a passion to labor with his hands. Mencer did woodwork for a long time, but it was becoming a time-consuming hobby for the husband and father of a family of six.
When he got his first 3D printing machine in January, he did so with the intention of making hitch covers for pickup trucks. When the world began to change, however, Mencer shifted his focus to a more humanitarian goal.
Mencer got his inspiration from a friend who works in healthcare and suggested he start the fundraiser. He then went to Make the Masks (makethemasks.com) to find the
best, most accurate way to develop an effective and safe mask. The point, he says, is to help community members who may not feel safe without masks during this time, whether they work in healthcare or not.
“It’s definitely having a huge impact for people who don’t have PPE to wear and need that sense of security,” says Deeann Daniels, a registered nurse at Winter Haven Hospital and Mencer’s friend.
The work, like anything else, is not without its challenges.
Mencer says that, though the machines do the main part of the work, they still need to be watched and respooled. Then the masks have to be packaged with all the necessary parts, and shipped.
His wife, Erin Mencer, works full-time from home and, with the kids, doesn’t have a whole lot of time to share. However, she says she sometimes uses her lunch and break times to respool the machines for Mencer while he’s at work – just trying to do her part in any way she can, as she is a big fan of her husband’s project.
The funds, Mencer says, get poured right back into the service to advance and streamline the process. He started out with just the one 3D printing machine, which he purchased for $400, but he’s now up to four machines. He has them all running simultaneously every day.
Funds have not only gone into more machines but also into purchasing different materials, parts for fixing the machines when they break, and shipping costs.
Mencer’s neighbor, Genna Williamson, a homeschooling mom, has a printing machine, too, and offered to help. She replied to his post on the hyperlocal social networking app Nextdoor. She says Mencer provides her with what she needs for her machine and that it can make anywhere from four to six masks a day, if she keeps it running steady.
“We just have the one machine at home chugging away as we can,” Williamson says. “He’s the workforce behind it all. I just wanted to feel like we were contributing.” Mencer has upgraded his style and technique from when he began, as he has learned a few things along the way. He can do different designs and even rainbow colors, a big hit with kids.
Though the fundraiser itself has ended, Mencer is still hard at work taking orders over Facebook. He can still be reached and takes a variety of forms of payment to make donating easy and convenient for those who need masks or want to help.
This community effort, Mencer says, has been received with mainly positive reactions and inspired even more people to help. In an already broken healthcare system, Erin Mencer says the point of this is to make it easier for those finding it hard to cope and stay safe during these worrisome times.
“We both have full-time jobs, and we’ve been blessed where we don’t have to worry about being unemployed or without healthcare,” she says. “We’re just trying to give back, is really all it is.” feedback@orlandoweekly.com
