By Esha Patel ’23

Amid the current mayhem of what is happening around the world, MFS Wordsworth searched to find some acts of kindness performed by people in our community. Although there are other things happening in the world, the COVID-19 virus seems to have taken up a large part of people’s focus. Wordsworth spoke with (virtually of course) someone from our own faculty to learn about what she has been doing to help others inside the comfort of her home. 

MFS MS/US Computer Science teacher Gail Barna has been producing 3D-printed face shields for workers in nearby healthcare centers including Cooper Hospital, UPenn Hospital, Virtua Hospitals, and also local EMT workers. With the help of her family, Barna has printed and assembled around 75 face shields and has orders for about 75 more. She explains that she heard about this new initiative through her neighbor. 

“He’s printing the N-95 masks … but he said he had a template for a face shield, which are used more by doctors and nurses, and he asked me if I could print them.” She then received permission to go into school and get the 3D printer. 

Barna said that the progress has been great, but it is hard to purchase materials at this time. 

“I ordered the transparent sheets right when this whole thing started, which was lucky because I got 200 of them which go over the mask, and now they’re all sold out.” These transparent sheets act as the shield to protect the person wearing it. She has ordered more materials, but now “they’re pretty much backordered now until the end of May.” Barna explained that she still has a good amount of plastic sheets left and will continue to produce more until her materials run out.   

Barna told Wordsworth that two of her children, both graduates of Moorestown Friends, inspired her to start this project. 

“I think that it’s their Quaker/MFS background.  As soon as they got [to my home] they said, ‘Oh my God what are we going to do?’ and so once we got the 3D printer, my whole family got into the mode of putting these all together.” 

The steps to putting together these face shields are actually quite simple. The template that Barna received from her neighbor uses notches in order to hold the transparent sheet in place. The individual then pokes holes in the sheet and it clicks onto them. 

“It’s meant to be used over a face mask and there are a lot of people who are making the homemade face masks out of cloth.” She then proceeded to explain that between the cloth masks and the face shields, it’s almost like you have a complete set.