The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Decatur nonprofit crafts PPE for health care workers
As the coronavirus pandemic has swept across Georgia, health care workers have found themselves without enough personal protective equipment (PPE) necessary to keep them safe from infection. Groups like Atlanta Beats Covid (ABC), which is a group of Atlanta makers who’ve banded together to create PPE, are working to battle this shortage.
“Front-line health care workers are facing a highly infectious pandemic with- out even basic protections. ABC is providing face shields, masks, intubation enclosures, gowns and other eq u ipment directly to those who need them, free of charge,” said Irm Dio- rio, the executive director of Decatur Makers, an all-ages nonprofit community work- space that is part of ABC.
Typically, Decatur Makers provides a space where experts and novices alike can gather under one roof to work and gain hands-on experience in their crafts. With their wood shop, metalworking area, textiles area, electronics shop, arts and crafts area, biolab, 3D printers, laser cutter, sewing machines and other tools, Decatur Makers has the tools to pivot their focus to creating PPE as part of Atlanta
Though it took place more than 100 years ago, the dramatic sinking of the world’s most exclusive luxury liner can still keep a group of second graders enthralled. Beats Covid. All together, product deliveries, sign up Thirty-four students at ABC has provided more than to help with manufacturing Sarah Smith Elementary in 19,000 PPE items to health of items if you have 3D print- Buckhead were treated to care workers in the Atlanta ers or laser cutters at home a workshop featuring artiarea. and make tax-deductible facts from the Titanic, the
“This local creation and financial donations to help British ship that sank April delivery model is bypass- buy materials. 15, 1912, after colliding with ing snarls in the PPE supWhere to donate: Make an iceberg. The 5,500 items ply chain that threaten our tax-deductible donations recovered from the wreck health care providers’ and and sign up to volunteer are cared for exclusively first responders’ safety and through the ABC website: by the Atlanta-based RMS their ability to continue to www.atlantabeatscovid.com Titanic Inc., which brought save others,” said Diorio. How to get help: Health a selection to the school just care workers and first respond- before the shutdown went ers in Georgia who need PPE into effect. But the event was can send requests through: the first of what the comwww.atlantabeatscovid.com/ pany hopes will continue contact to be traveling exhibits to school groups.
“We’ve been ge t ting requests from the education community to do outreach programs as Titanic crosses multiple platforms, and students find Titanic a topic that resonates,” said Alexandra Klingelhofer, the company’s executive director of collections.
“We’re starting in Atlanta to hone what those relationships can be, to make sure we’re bringing what they need and to test what we’d like to do on a grander scale. And now post-coronavirus, we’ve been getting a lot of requests for online learning using Titanic as a platform,” she said.
The students got up-close and personal with a variety of artifacts, including a leather wallet, pieces of currency, a Valentine postcard, the frame of a chandelier and dishes from the first-, sec- ond- and third-class dining rooms. The items served as a jumping off point for conversations across several cur- riculum areas.
“We can use these artifacts to talk about things like science exploration and oceanography, as well as complex issues that help kids under- stand why things happen,” said Klingelhofer. “We’ve found that particularly for 8- and 9-year-olds, this is an introduction to tragedy, survival and heroism.
Who’s helping? Decatur Makers
Services: Decatur Makers is part of the leadership team of, and acting as the nonprofit fiscal agent for, the Atlanta Beats Covid group, which is providing face shields, elastic strain relievers, masks, intubation enclosures, gowns and other equipment to health care workers.
How to help: Volunteer for product assembly and
They also have a lot of basic questions about the Edwardian period in general: What did people wear? What were the rooms like? What pets were on board? What did the children do?”
Much of the discussion at the event revolved around communication and the wireless system that sent out distress signals as the ship was sinking. Students worked in teams to assemble small tele- graph machines and learned to type out “SOS” in dots and dashes.
“The radio was cool,” said Phoenix McEwen, 9. “You had to press it like a but- ton multiple times to do it.”
Aryan Jain, 8, was taken with the remnants of the chandelier.
“It made me wonder how a light bulb could survive 100 years under the water,” he said. “I also like seeing the money from a long time ago.”
Jain added he didn’t know the whole Titanic story, but he’s since been reading up on the history. He joins a legion of people across all age groups who find the tale captivating.
“Titanic is a microcosm of all things we tend to find fascinating— celebrities, immigration stories, women stepping out of traditional 1912 roles and becoming leaders and heroes,” said Klingelhofer. “And it all happened in this one ship. In addition, we have the recovery efforts and ability to see this opulence on the ocean floor that continues to bring people back to the story. Compared to something like King Tut’s tomb, it’s still something you can see and wrap your head around.”