AT WORK—The Bateman family of Moorpark has been using a 3D printer that was donated to Flory Academy of Sciences and Technology by the FAST Booster Club to make face mask straps for medical personnel. The straps are then attached to face masks. Photos courtesy of FAST Booster Club
For nearly 24 hours a day, the slow hum and buzz of a small 3D printer echoes throughout the Bateman family’s Moorpark home.
The tiny machine is hard at work creating dozens of blue and black mask straps designed to relieve the pressure on medical professionals’ ears while they wear surgical masks for 12 to 14 hours a day.
“We’re running the 3D printer nearly 24/7. We don’t go to bed until one is done and we can start a new print, and then we start a new one right when we wake up,” Ola Bateman said.
So far, the machine has cranked out more than 300 mask straps for doctors, nurses, grocery store workers and dentists throughout Ventura and Los Angeles counties.
“It’s nice to know you’re contributing in some small way and helping some of those front-line workers out,” Bateman said.
The Batemans began producing the mask straps nearly two weeks ago as part of a collective effort by parents and students who are part of the Flory Academy of Sciences and Technology (FAST) Booster Club, an independent organization that supports the elementary campus.
Some of the finished pieces. The straps are then attached to face masks. Photos courtesy of FAST Booster Club
The idea for the mask straps came from the booster club’s hospitality director, Danny Margolis, who has a friend who works in the medical field.
“Danny (has) a friend in Long Beach who is a doctor and was asking if (Flory) had a 3D printer,” said Natalie Perkins, vice president of FAST Booster Club. “She mentioned these straps and somehow the seed was planted. From there, we said, ‘Let’s put this 3D printer to use and make those mask straps.’”
The 3D printer was purchased by the booster club and donated to Flory Academy. Since the Batemans—mom Ola, the FAST Booster Club treasurer; dad Brent; and their children Benjamin, 13, and Samantha, 10—had the most experience using the machine, they volunteered to monitor the printing for the duration of the project.
The family was able to find and modify a mask-strap design to fit the school’s Prusa brand printer. They’re using supplies and materials donated from the elementary school and booster club to print the straps.
“We average about 40 straps a day. We can get eight on a plate and it takes 3 hours and 39 minutes to run,” Ola Bateman said.
The FAST Booster Club’s first delivery of mask straps was on April 9 when the team sent a batch to the Ventura County Pediatric Diagnostic Center.
“The first delivery that went out was for a mom who was at Flory for 11 years,” Perkins said. “We reached out to her and asked if she could use these and she said absolutely.”
Since then, the booster club has received requests from doctors and nurses at West Hills Hospital and Medical Center, Miller Children’s and Women’s Hospital Long Beach, St. John’s Pleasant Valley Hospital in Camarillo and Ventura Orthopedics.
“We just started reaching out to people in the medical field to see if they needed it. We now have all kinds of people who are requesting them,” Perkins said. “It’s strictly donation. We aren’t making a profit on these.”
The booster club is beginning to form a “mask brigade” of community members who own 3D printers and have the means to produce mask straps.
“It’s one of those grassroots things and now we have three or four printers in this little brigade,” Bateman said. “We’re happy to share the file with anyone to let them participate and contribute.”