Last Week at Something Labs
Dear Something Labs Family,
First of all, THANK YOU. Thank you for giving your time, energy and financial support to helping protect our frontline workers. Thank you for choosing to ask ‘How can I help?’ during a period that is testing individuals and communities in unexpected ways.
Something Labs was formed seven weeks ago, when a few curious engineers asked whether they could use their skills to contribute to helping frontline workers (they could). And from there, well, things snowballed. We went from prototyping a few designs late at night, to having a close-to-full-time team manufacturing, distributing, sharing open source designs, grant-writing, invoicing and, heck, creating a distance-d community of volunteers dedicating their time for others.
To date, we’ve manufactured and distributed over 18,000 face shields, and over 11,000 Powered Air Purifying Respirator (PAPR) shields (which keep expensive machines operating at hospitals). None of this would have been possible without our incredible network of volunteers and financial support through various avenues including the GoFundMe and very generous donations from several Rotary Clubs in the Bay Area.
We’re running so many diverse projects, we wanted to share with you what was done in just this past week:
PAPR / CAPR Shield Replacements
These are the shields that keep the PAPR (powered air-purifying respirator) units running. When a hospital called us to tell us these were breaking on their CAPR Max-Air (a specific brand of PAPR) thus rendering the machines useless, we quickly prototyped and started producing a design that worked.
Our manufacturing in Oakland is now churning out 1000 of these shields per day with the help of 25 manufacturing staff, and we delivered 3500 to four hospitals last week alone.
All told, we’ve now delivered over 5000 to 15 hospitals in Northern California through the amazing help of our committed group of drivers, sometimes committing to driving 2 hours each way to make a delivery happen.
Face Shields and Volunteers
Volunteers helped us construct and deliver over 1500 shields to 18 locations all over the Bay Area last week alone.
We surpassed 100 destinations delivered to - all made possible by the over 70 volunteers that have helped us assemble over 18,000 (yes, that many zeros) so far!
We began partnering with the Rotary Clubs of SF, Oakland, Pacifica and Millbrae, and many Rotarians spent time assembling and delivering 300 shields to a rehabilitation facility in Pacifica and two nursing homes in Daly City.
Innovation
And here we come to the cool part, hospitals are now calling us for help -- and our design team responds. Quickly. On Wednesday, we were called to a hospital because their CAPR machines were broken. Check out Sam’s blog about the day and how quickly our engineers react to the challenges posed at each step along the way.
We prototyped our first impermeable gowns this week. Gowns are the #1 most needed item of PPE in the US right now, a trend we know first hand in the Bay Area. We will be sending out our prototypes to several hospitals on Monday.
In Other News
Jonathan Bloom from NBC News paid us a visit, touring our facility and learning firsthand from the hospitals how we’re helping get them the PPE they need.
We have an Instagram! And a Facebook Page! Follow us there to keep in the loop or connect with our community!
We teamed up with a group out of Stanford led by Yuki Tanimoto to super-charge distribution of all our PPE
A few amazing artists / makers out there are donating a portion of their sales to Something Labs. If you’re in the market for a beautiful mask, Anne Gate Studio is selling handcrafted masks, and donating 20% of proceeds to Something Labs. Looking for art? Sky Greene Photography is also donating 20% of proceeds from print sales to Something Labs. Isaac Klunk, an artist from Toledo, Ohio is donating 10% of proceeds from this print, an ode to healthcare heroes, available on Etsy.
Our team took a break from manufacturing PAPR shields to save a family of baby ducklings from an empty fountain they were stuck in. It was darn cute.
And in a major win, we just received a grant from Get Us PPE that will allow us to expand our outreach efforts to counties around the country with the highest need for PAPR shields.
We have so much love and appreciation for each and everyone of you who has helped this cause over the last 7 weeks. Thank you for helping make this happen day after day. For assembling, driving, delivering, building, saving and healing. Our gratitude is endless.
Can you help us make outreach calls to healthcare facilities or do deliveries? Join our cause here. Want to help us continue doing this work? Please share this widely with your networks.
In love and admiration,
The Something Labs Family
