Chattahoochee High Senior Designs 'Ear Savers' For School Staff

JOHNS CREEK, GA — Chattahoochee High School senior Julia Scott designed and created over 180 flexible plastic "ear savers" on her 3D printer for people to wear with PPE masks. She donated them to organizations and the staff at Chattahoochee, complete with personalized "Hooch" insignia.

As the pandemic forced the school closures in March, Scott began her project to produce some personal protective equipment to assist front-line workers. She and her parents looked for mask designs and face shields but found materials difficult to find. Then she came across ear savers and decided not only would they be a simpler design but they also had plenty of materials available. Her family joined in and helped keep the 3D printer going.

"It was a family team effort," Scott said. "The printer was running nonstop throughout the day."

The more they printed and tried different designs, the more she could customize and add additional designs to the ear savers. Once school ended, she started printing as many ear savers as possible to help local organizations. Each ear cover took nearly three hours to complete and more than 80 hours to finish all the masks.

When she was asked to make the Chattahoochee High School ear savers, she was sent logos from the administration. She and her family also came up with a custom design for the Taylor Road Middle School Band Department.

Scott has not decided on a career path, though she is interested in science, math and forensics.

"This entire COVID experience has been hard on everyone," Scott said. "I was glad that I could find some way to help out my community and my school. I enjoyed the creative process of designing the ear savers and will continue to look for other opportunities."