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Fire jugglers become virus stoppers in Charlestown

Before and after: What the company used to make and what it makes now

Before and after: What the company used to make and what it's making now.

In the Before Times, Dark Monk of Charlestown made equipment for certain types of performers - everything from juggling pins to flaming ropes and swords. But the company is now using its manufacturing know how to turn out some of the polycarbonate face shields that are in such high demand by medical professionals these days.

Owner Chad Bennett hopes to make 4,000 of the masks over the next couple of weeks, according to a GoFundMe page set up to help cover the costs of turning raw materials into shields that can protect doctors, nurses and technicians from Covid-19.

H/t Prairie Rose Clayton for the headline.

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Comments

Creativity to the rescue.

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This is cool. Thanks for stepping up!

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People with face shields wielding flaming whips to enforce social distancing, now THAT'S entertainment!

(seriously, good on them!)

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They should make a flaming whip that's 5'11" long.

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Hey, this is really cool to see. There is a concerted effort by MGH to come up with rapid DIY PPE designs and get them out to other hospitals and hackerspaces.

Here's a message from Chad:

Our reusable solid shield design just got approved by Cape Cod hospital and their network of hospitals and they are asking for 5000 shields (3 more major hospitals are reviewing these now also). I need the following help BADLY
1. We need to setup a better manufacturing spot. I need a place with a large open work area (a cafeteria would be perfect). We need access to 3 or 4 ovens (regular baking ovens is fine). Again some sort of open floor restaurant or cafeteria would probably be perfect. 2000 sq ft is more than enough.
2. Logistics - I need someone to help coordinate people helping build stuff. We need them screened for minimal exposure risk. I need help knowing what our raw material inventory is, ordering more, and sourcing things (we can help with that too).
3. Financial support - these cost about $5 a shield. We are at a minimum going to be making 6000 now most likely with several other large hospitals I am waiting to hear back from. We have a go fund me setup which is getting huge support and I ONLY want the materials costs covered. I don't know how to setup the best funding vehicle for this (go-fund me starts doing weird tax stuff after 10k I hear).
4. Assembly people. It isn't hard to put these together, but you need basic tool skills. Most importantly, we need you to have been damn good about protecting yourself for the last 7 days. Including the people you are isolating with. This is critical.
If you are good, and I need really good right now, at any of this and can help PLEASE contact me asap. If you know someone, that knows someone with a cafateria or something that meets our needs, link them but also give them a call. We have to move VERY fast to make this happen.

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I hope others will donate, too. These wonderful people are donating the masks they make and trying to increase production while keeping safe distances. They are only asking for help covering the cost of materials and have promised to donate anything left over to funds for health providers.

While it's sad that this is needed, it's wonderful to see people doing things like this to help.

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