Several Ventura students step up to make face shields for medical staff

VENTURA, Calif.-- Several students throughout the Ventura Unified School District are manufacturing face shields for local doctors and nurses who desperately need protective gear.

“We are producing somewhere from 30-40 a day,” said Alex Wulff, who founder of the non-profit organization known as STEMbassadors.

3D printers are being put to work to create face shields for local hospital workers. But the people behind the machines are just kids.

“It is high school, middle school, and even elementary school kids who are doing this,” said Wulff. “I couldn’t be more proud of them.”

Wulff is also a junior high school teacher at De Anza. His nonprofit STEMbassadors provides students with state-of-the-art technology, like 3D printers.

“Joesph Prusa, who is basically one of the founding fathers of 3D printing, came up with this design to help patients in Italy,” said Wulff. “It is pretty amazing. He made the design open source for everybody.”

Wulff says his students got word of the design and immediately jumped on board creating protective gear for the local hospitals.

“These kids were able to do something that industry couldn’t, and that government couldn’t, which is really quickly respond without any kind of global supply chain and start producing something to protect our health care workers,” said Wulff.
   
Wulff has collected nearly 40 3D printing machines and distributed them to the students homes. Each shield takes 3 hours to make. And these students have already created 75.

“Not only is VCMC, who we are trying to produce 500 face shields to, but now Community Memorial is contacting us saying we need them too and Cottage Memorial,” said Wulff.

The U-S Navy even reached out to Wulff to ask for the design plans.

“We are sending out those plans,” said Wulff. “I mean it is so easy to share this."

STEMbassadros is still collecting donations, including materials and 3D printers.

“These people are nurses and doctors and they are going into the ER’s every single day and they do not have the equipment that they need,” said Wulff. “So if we can make the tiniest difference that is what we want to do.”

If you would like to help or make a donation you can email Alex Wulff at Alex.Wulff@venturausd.org