Our recently formed startup Monterey Bay Makers Coalition has just received a grant for $5000k to help PPE production campaign. This is addition to the in-kind donation arrangement we have with Cisco. Monterey Bay Makers is a coallition spontaneously formed in response to COVID 19 with the goal to design, fabricate, distribute and educate our community around PPE best practices and production. Organizations driving the momentum of this startup include Naval Post Graduate School, Carmel Maker Space, UC Santa Cruz, The Sustainability Academy, several high school technology teams including Stevenson, York School, PG High School.
“The idea really hit me on a virtual meeting late March with Terry Duffina, Director of Sustainability at Stanford Hospital, who was reporting about issues around PPE, the immense increased in demand, the single use practices, the large energy waste due disposal of used PPE. In the past 2 weeks we have produced approx 2000 face shields and related PPE products. We have learned from open source face shield models found online and also developed our own light weight face shield strap that prints quicker and uses less materials. These faceshields are re-usable thereby creating less waste and reducing supply shortages. “ says Thomas Rettenwender of the Carmel Maker Space , one of the affiliates in the Coalition.
Attached is an article written by one of our recipients. Interim Inc. who provide affordable housing and residential health care services.
Other List of Recipients so far : Carmel PD, Monterey PD, PG Police Dept, CHOMP, Natividad Hospital, Natividad – ICU RN, Santa Clara Emergency docs, Salud para la Gente, Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital, Alliance Mart, USPS, Salinas Valley Medical Clinic, Rite Aid PG, Trader Joe’s, Dr. Brian Lackey DDS, Gathering for Women, Dorothy’s Place, Interim – Residential Treatment Program, Monterey Police Academy
This $5k grant given to us by the NPS Foundation is a huge boost for us. This will help our growing team of local fabricators scale up production and maintain our equipment. Our longer term vision is to pass on our equipment to local schools for use as teaching tools. This grant application was spearheaded by Amela Sadic
This is in addition to an in-kind donation agreement that has been formed with Cisco who have pledged to supply Monterey Bay Makers with materials needed for production.
We have an extensive ‘Slack channel’ documenting all our communications and are creating a data base of local needs. We host regular video conference calls and are looking for others to join our group to assist with design fabrication and outreach. We have a Meet-up group Carmel Maker Space hosting additional virtual events.
Please contact me if you want further information.
Thomas Rettenwender, M.A., Mag. Arch., LEED AP, Architect
Principal Architect, Ecologic ArchitectsLecturer, University of Santa Cruz, Rachel Carson CollegeChairman, The Sustainability AcademyCEO, Carmel Maker Space Cell: 831-920-8333www.EcoLogicDesignLab.com