West Palm Beach, Florida Apr 9, 2020 (Issuewire.com) - Students from the Seminole Ridge Community High School got together with the goal of distributing much needed masks to healthcare workers and the elderly to help combat the Covid-19 crisis, and to combat the strain of depleted mask supplies for healthcare workers across the nation.
"Once Covid-19 became a thing, and seeing that we couldn't purchase masks in any of the stores, we thought we would use dental bibs to create our own masks," said George Domaceti, one of the organizers. "Our initial goal was to make masks for ourselves, and even distribute some to the community."
Domaceti, assisted by his son Brandon and a couple of their friends, Devon Robbins and Sam Martinelli, later enlisted some of their fellow high school students and families who worked for days to create masks from dental bibs. Over 1,000 masks were donated to the Wellington Regional Medical Center and will continue to be given out to anyone who needs them outside a few of the local Publix supermarkets.
"We started with just two of my friends and my dad who had an idea to turn dental bibs into masks and give them to the elderly," said Brandon Domaceti, a high school senior at Seminole Ridge Community High School. "After a local news station aired what we were doing, we got a call from someone at the hospital who said that they were going to be out of masks within a week. So we contacted other high school families who were more than happy to help. We eventually got 27 families to volunteer who over the the past few days, did nothing but make masks."
The masks they are creating are well constructed and offer as much if not better protection than the N95 masks. They are 3-ply with one side providing an absorbent cloth which prevents fluids from dripping off onto other surfaces while the other side is made of a waterproof polycarbonate and prevents viral infected fluids from getting through.
"It feels good to be able to do something to help," said fellow student Devon Robbins, "Lately we haven't been able to do much except to watch the news. After dropping the masks to the hospital, they were so appreciative and grateful for our gesture. Now we are able to do something constructive with our extra time and it feels really good."
"We also created a video which shows how to make your own mask should anyone not be able to get a mask from us," said Sam Martinelli, one of the students. "It is very easy to make one and takes less than 2 minutes."
The group of volunteers continue to make masks and donate them to anyone who needs them while supplies keep coming in. They are in desperate need of more dental bibs and are asking the dental community who have an extra case to donate to please call 561-602-6000.
Media Contact
News Writer's Institute newsdesk@newswritersinstitute.info Karan Brown 1 Broward Blvd, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301 http://www.newswritersinstitute.info
