People Doing Good Things in the Face of a Pandemic

One of the face shields and some of the N95 masks 3-D printed by Bedford High School seniors Sylvia Wolk, Cole Parks, Corey Abraham, and Joe Girifalco using materials donated by Anhad Swahney and Kyle McCandless. The students have partnered with Jessie Gilbert of Lexington and maker space Lowell Makes to complete the project.  The gear will be donated to O’Connor Hospital in Delhi, NY.

 

It’s often that through adversity that the best of brought out in the people around us and this pandemic that has hit our home of Bedford, MA has done just that in some of the Town’s young people.

As the country was hit hard with school and store closings, layoffs, social limitations, illness, uncertainty, and fear. Many young people would be huddled at home online talking with their friends and lamenting their losses, especially Seniors who feel robbed of their final months of milestone events and all the Senioritis they can get away with, but not Sylvia Wolk and Cole Parks of Bedford High School.

Wolk and Parks have rallied many others to jump on board with their mission of making protective face shields and N95 face masks for healthcare workers that are in short supply.

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The students quickly spread the word among their peers on social media and partnering with Jessie Gilbert of Lexington and a group of friends found themselves in production quickly. Sylvia’s mother Nancy Wolk partnered with locally-based Lowell Makes to finish off the products for shipment.

The team of people including Sylvia Wolk, Cole Parks, Corey Abraham, and Joe Girifalco are using two different designs the Prusa (created with the Czeck health ministry) and the Budmen Industry face shields. The team is also cutting transparency sheets donated by Anhad Swahney and Kyle McCandless to fasten to the face shields for the healthcare workers to use to protects themselves against COVID-19.

Abraham has primarily made the now-famous N95 face masks and Lowell Makes is finishing the masks by adding an N95 filtration system and the seals needed for protecting workers.

Seeing this collection of people who are bound by connecting towns and the drive to help in a time of need when it would be just as easy to be immobilized with fear is inspirational.

Part of this delivery is going to O’Connor Hospital in Delhi, NY. Pam Dorr, an ER Nurse at O’Connor, is a family friend of the Girifalco’s. They made the connection with the hospital when Dorr sent the Girifalco’s a picture of a paper bag holding her N95 mask that she needs to use for days on end before getting a new one because of the shortage.

After one call, the hospital will be getting some new gear from a little town in Massachusetts. Bound by a common mission of doing good for one another and friendship.  Nurse Door said in a text “we just had our morning huddle and we heard some awesome students from Bedford MA are making face shields for us, please know that you’ve put so many smiles on our faces!!”

If you would like to contribute to this project in any way, please reach out by email to Nancy Wolk at [email protected].

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