ATHOL — During a conference call with staff members from around the Athol Royalston Regional School District last week, Principal David King brought up the fact that Athol High School had the supplies and equipment necessary to produce components used in making personal protective equipment (PPE) desperately needed by health care workers battling the coronavirus pandemic.
King then asked available staff members to pitch in to get the job done.
In a release, King said within eight hours history teacher and head football coach Bill LaRose and technology assistant Josh Gabrenas had warmed up the district’s Dremel 3D printers and started producing supplies for the PPE needed by local health care professionals and first responders.
The pair named their effort “Raider Pride Industries.” According to the release, Raider Pride Industries begins operations at 6:30 a.m. and doesn’t end the workday until 9 p.m. The five 3D printers each take about an hour to produce one shield holder, and 30 minutes to manufacture a mask holder.
“With other daily responsibilities to their students and districtwide technology needs,” said King, “these two have gone the extra mile during these challenging times.”
By employing a programmable logic array (PLA) media file, Raider Pride Industries is capable of producing 60 items for personal protective equipment each day. The items being printed include large shield clips, small shield clips, and large and small mask holders.
As of Friday morning, Raider Pride Industries had manufactured 176 items and distributed them to Athol Hospital, Heywood Hospital in Gardner and Health Alliance Hospital in Leominster.
Raider Pride has also been in touch with the Athol Police Department to provide them with shield clips and mask holders in the hope the department can find a local company to supply them shields and masks.
According to the release, Raider Pride Industries will continue its production of PPE components until printing supplies run out or the need is no longer there, whichever comes first.
When local hospitals were asked how many more of the items they could use, King said, the message was “keep them coming.”