10 Additional DDSB 3D Printers Provided to Help Frontline Healthcare Workers

Posted On Thursday April 30, 2020
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Carruthers Creek PS Grade 5 Teacher Julia Matys alongside the 3D printer, showing a handful of face shields that she made with her son Matthew Matys.

 

UPDATE April 30, 2020: The DDSB has contributed another 10 3D printers to support this community effort and the valuable contributions being made by our frontline health care workers.   

Originally Released: April 20, 2020

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DDSB Provides 3D Printers to Help Frontline Healthcare Workers

DDSB teacher and Sinclair Secondary School alumnus are producing face shields for frontline healthcare workers

Supporting frontline healthcare workers and helping to keep our community safe during the COVID-19 pandemic is very important to the Durham District School Board (DDSB) and teacher Julia Matys. In addition to DDSB’s recent donation of over 158,000 pieces of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to Lakeridge Health, we recently joined forces with community organizations to create face shields for frontline healthcare workers in Durham Region.

“The DDSB is proud to help support Durham Region’s frontline workers as they selflessly and tirelessly make sacrifices to keep all of us safe and healthy during the COVID-19 pandemic,” says Chris Braney, Chair of the Durham District School Board. “We are all working together to support students and families and we are delighted that our contribution can make a positive impact and hopefully save lives.”

Matys is a Grade 5 teacher at Carruthers Creek Public School and she wanted to fulfil her civic responsibility to help during the pandemic. She heard about the face shield initiative and she decided to get involved. In doing so, she recruited her son Matthew, a Sinclair Secondary School alumnus who is currently an engineer at Ontario Power Generation, to help using his 3D printer.

She reached out to DDSB staff for support and is now using two 3D printers on loan from Sinclair Secondary School. The printers were dropped off last Thursday and now the pair are busy printing headbands for face shields and making a difference.

Community Printing Team

“Giving back to the community in which I have lived for 30 years makes me feel proud to call Whitby my home, my community and my family,” Matys says. “We are stronger together and helping each other during this global pandemic is a civic responsibility that I take seriously. There is no greater feeling than being able to use the knowledge and resources at our disposal to ultimately protect our frontline workers while saving lives of others.”

Kim Brookes and her partner John Vanderlinde started the project with two 3D printers, and on March 27th they delivered six face shields to a hospital in Bowmanville. By the end of the first week, they had completed 150 face shields. With the help of community organizations and others such as the DDSB, the Durham Catholic District School Board, law firm Jane Conte & Associates, and the towns of Ajax and Whitby, to date they’ve delivered more than 1000 pieces to help protect frontline healthcare workers across the Durham Region.

“We have been working to fill a void. Our goal is to help our frontline healthcare to do their job to help us and they need PPE to do that,” Brookes says. “We will keep printing until they are supplied with the resources they need.”