When our robotics season was abruptly halted, just a few short days after our Cyber Eagles won the Inspire Award for the province of Alberta, we were devastated. After all, we were starting to make plans for our trip to Houston, Texas to join the world in competition and fun. Looking back, the loss of our trip pales in comparison to the pain and suffering we are now witnessing across the globe. During these days of isolation, I asked our team “what can we do to help?” I know these students are incredibly smart, thoughtful and a very caring group. It didn’t take long for a response.
We quickly learned that our front-line emergency responders would appreciate a holder for the hand sanitizer bottles that they have to keep with them. Something that would attach to their belts. It wasn’t long and we had a program that we could use on our 3-D printer and very quickly production began. We recruited three other friends with printers to join us in the project and we were off! The initial request was for 50 units, which did not take us long to complete.
Next we reached out to other contacts we had in the health community. We asked if there was something we could do to support them. They responded with the following photo,
With their staff having to constantly wear protective masks, the area behind their ears were becoming raw and very sore. They ask if we could make these plastic devices to hook their masks onto. Within just a few hours we had produced half a dozen and delivered them to their facility for them to test. The next morning, they requested 500+ units as soon as we can get them, AND they were going to let the other organizations in the area know about them. We quickly recruited our friends and we are now producing over 300 units per day! Better still, we are getting requests from other teams to share the file so they can start producing Ear Savers.
We acknowledge that in the grand picture, this is a pretty small contribution. But we are thrilled to support our emergency responders and hard working front-line workers in anyway that we can.
Strathcona County Robotics Association 