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Alliance volunteers assemble medical face shields. (Photo courtesy RVA MakeItThru Alliance)
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Jean-Etienne LaVallee with MakeItThru Alliance face shields (Photo courtesy RVA MakeItThru Alliance)
As COVID-19 caseloads rose exponentially in early spring while hospitals across the country lacked safety shields and masks, some creative Richmond residents wanted to provide local health care workers with proper protective gear.
Grassroots efforts sprang up in the initial days of the pandemic, seeking to provide the safety equipment to health care providers. But those efforts were piecemeal, inefficient and often ineffective. Many of the products were crafted by garage tinkerers who were unaware of safety specs and standards. All too often, such labors resulted in pieces produced with the best of intentions that had to be thrown in the trash.
Some Richmond makers and coders were monitoring the situation, and they felt there had to be a better way. “What we found were many of the nonprofessional makers were in way over their heads,” says Jean-Etienne LaVallee. He’s lead software engineer with Capital One, a co-founder of Capital One Makers and part of a collaborative effort of volunteers who are working to craft, assemble and ship personal protective gear for health care workers in Richmond and beyond. His group is called the RVA MakeItThru Alliance, one of several groups across the area producing gear and helping out.
The umbrella group for a large collaborative effort that involved the Alliance and other groups in Richmond was formed and called RVA Project Shield.
The project is for “anyone and everyone,” according to Bert Green, owner of SolarMill and president of RVA Makers, a collective that represents metro area makers. The Build Forward Foundation worked with RVA Makers to craft protective face shields. The nonprofit foundation provides a makerspace, Build, RVA, on Rosedale Avenue in Scott’s Addition.
Green says he noticed various people making protective gear and saw a need for a group to organize, promote and coordinate. Face shields were the critical need locally, and that led to the collaborative focusing on masks and medical-grade face shields, the full plastic models that stop spatter, spittle and sneezes — gear that can be used with high-risk patients.
Green says there’s no coordinated national effort to help with projects such as this, just lots of local groups across the country. “It essentially pitted city versus city, hospital versus hospital,” he says. “Everybody is clamoring for the same stuff, and we got what we could to bring to Richmond.”
Project Shield partners delivered 13,200 face shields to health care workers by mid-May, according to Build, RVA.
Regular supply lines are beginning to meet demand, and the dire need for gear in Richmond has been met.
Its work done, the coalition dissolved. “The emergency part of the sprint, we’ve made it through,” Green says.
RVA Makers will continue to connect people with resources. Its website (rvamakers.com) offers information on crafting cloth masks, hand sanitizer, face shields and relief resources for small businesses.
Project Shield participant the Good Work Society provided 200 face shields at cost to GRTC bus drivers and donated an additional 200. The Alliance sent 500 shields to the Navajo Nation.
Producing protective gear and the other initiatives are a major effort, but they're a way to give to the community while trying to do the “best we can do to protect our friends and neighbors,” Green says. But many of the makers are also small businesses and had to balance community work with keeping a business going.
The project was never conceived of as an ongoing business, but, depending on the pandemic, Green says, “We are ready if something happens again.”
It’s exhausting work, but it exemplifies the can-do spirit of a community coming together. “There are so many bright spots to look at, amid so much tragedy,” Green says.
Helping Hands
There are several opportunities available to help out.
- Learn more about RVA Project Shield through its Facebook group.
- Links to various resources for COVID-19 response efforts can be found at rvamakers.com by clicking on “COVID-19.” There, you will find info regarding cloth masks, hand sanitizer, face shields, ventilators and economic relief resources for small businesses.
- You can donate to the gear production campaign or seek assistance at RVABuild.com.
- Learn more about the work of the RVA MakeItThru Alliance at its Facebook group page.
- Raise the Shields, a GoFundMe campaign to raise $75,000 for production and distribution of 50,000 face shields, is sponsored by LaVallee and Larkin Garbee of the Good Work Society, a partner nonprofit in the original shield project. As of early June, about a third of its goal had been reached. Find give-one, get-one shields at goodworksociety.org/goodstore.html.
