In March, Youth Group member Alice Feng initiated the COVID-19 Relief Projects for the ShinShin Youth Group, which has three parts, making face shields, sewing face masks and collecting single-use masks and santizing supplies. She is now leading the Face Shield Group, and has been able to connect with various doctors and nurses in the Bay Area who are all very appreciative of the Youth Group’s face shields. Since the initiation of this project, the Youth Group has created and donated several hundreds of face shields to hospitals and healthcare workers.
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At first the group only made 3D printed face shields because that was the first tutorial Alice found and was what hospitals would accept for donation. David Ke was the first to join this group and has been continually printing more face shields and contributing his knowledge and experience from Robotics. Angela Cai bought a 3D printer just for this project and started printing face shields the day her printer arrived. Later on, handmade face shields started to be accepted by healthcare workers, and Alice compiled a tutorial using easier-to-find materials, hence many youth group members without 3D printers were eager to join. Dennis Wang and his brother Daniel came up with the idea of using buttons to secure the binding cover more and bring some aesthetic to the face shield. Jessica Qiu bought a giant styrofoam sheet to use for these face shields; she cut the styrofoam by hand into slices which is an added labor for her but saves a huge cost.
There are still many youth group members waiting for their materials to arrive, and overall, everyone has brought a lot of enthusiasm into this project and supporting medical professionals. Everyone has learned a lot about the power of teamwork through this face shield project. With each individual making face shields every day and cheering up each other, the entire group has now created several hundreds of face shields
When the Youth Group also received the request for handmade cotton face masks to be worn outside of the N-95 masks, Youth Group member Katherine Mo took the lead in this part of the event. She bought sewing machines and fabric for making the mask and recorded a video on how to make masks. She also contacted several hospitals and medical facilities to check for acceptance and offer donations. Her brother Austin also helped with some of the masks. Heidi Wang contributed several masks even under limited resources. Jiatian Yuan does not have a sewing machine at home, she and her mom hand sewn many masks to donate. Alice Feng also participated in the making of masks, and tested with different methods of sewing the masks. Alex Liu and his brother Christopher Liu along with their whole family made many masks. Their grandmother also gave very valuable suggestions and even sewed some of the masks. Some of our face masks already boarded plane to New York to help Doctors and Nurses even outside of our local community.
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There is still a huge shortage in Personal Protective Equipment in medical facilities. Youth group members, let's work together to make face shields and face masks. When we put our effort together, we can greatly support medical professionals who are protecting us and our community. Together we fight the virus, we can do it!