Assembling Shields For Frontline Staff

When the country went into Covid-19 Alert Level 4 Lockdown, a call went out from the ‘ShieldsUp’ initiative, asking for volunteers to assist in creating PPE type face shields to protect front line staff who worked for ‘essential services.’  

Isaac Lindroos, Year 10, and Campbell Wright, Year 12 are both enthusiastic about 3D printing; they own their own printers and connect through social media to other 3D enthusiasts. When the call came through the 3D printing network for assistance, Isaac and Campbell put their hands up to get involved. The ShieldsUp initiative now has an impressive network of volunteers from all over New Zealand who have been 3D printing, assembling and delivering masks.

 The boys took the initiative to sign up themselves, and then announced to their families to expect multiple courier packs to arrive with the equipment required! They found the initiative to be very well organised via Zoom meetings and there was plenty of email and chat room correspondence to make sure they were on track. 

So far, Isaac and Campbell, each in their own garages, have put together over 600 face shields and delivered them to doctor’s practices, pharmacies, rest homes, St John’s depots and other care providers across Auckland.  And the work is on-going! They were issued COVID-19 essential workers IDs and travel passes so they could legitimately travel out of their neighbourhood to make the deliveries – one small hitch, the boys are too young to drive and so their parents were roped in as part of the process!

The boys have loved being a part of the national pandemic response and being able to put a hobby to essential use. Well done boys!