Assistant Head Of School Helps Make Coronavirus Face Shields

DOWNERS GROVE, IL — Like many people involved in education, Avery Coonley School Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Head Peter Brown's day-to-day life changed when the coronavirus shutdown took effect. These days, you'll find Brown spending 12 hours or so in the school's maker space making plastic face shields on the 3-D printer and laser cutter to help front line workers.

When the need for personal protective equipment (PPE) at local hospitals became evident, the school started by collecting and donating PPE to Edward Hospital, but started thinking of ways they could help even more. The school then teamed up with TinkRWorks, one of its partners, to get to work on the initial design. After a little bit of tweaking, the design was ready to go.

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Brown told Patch each mask initially took three hours or more to make, but MakerGear offered them a discount on an additional 3-D printer, so they can now churn out three masks in three hours.

The face masks are being donated to local hospitals mainly by word-of-mouth requests, Brown said, adding that the school just donated 20 masks to Edward Hospital. If residents have their own 3-D printers, Brown said they can help by using this prototype to make face shields of their own.

When asked how it feels to know he's making a difference in the community, Brown said humbly, "We're all in this together. We are just doing our part to help provide support, in a small way."

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