TYLER, Texas — The staff at All Saints Episcopal School in Tyler are creating working essentials for medical workers to help combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mike Cobbs, the head of the school, along with school staff are working to create N95 masks through the use the schools 3D printer.
"We are probably about 75 now into the N95 masks right now," Cobb said.
Weeks ago, the All Saints Episcopal School in Tyler was making protective face masks for patients and health care workers, according to the Tyler Morning Telegraph.
"The first thing we started to do was make our cotton masks," Cobb said. "We were able to use our laser cutter in order to do these in a very fast way."
Cobb says they have made more than 1,000 cotton face mask and 50 face shields.
"I have had some of our faculty members who have come up here, and we’ve been able to spread the machines throughout our Center for Innovation, which is a really cool space in our upper school," Cobb said. "And we’re able to use different rooms so we can all go in a room."
The All Saints N95 masks are made to have an interchangeable filter and may be washed and reused.
Cobb says the masks have been sent to Los Angeles and New York and are used here in East Texas.
"We've helped over at UT Health and Tyler Internal Medicine, Tyler Oncology," Cobb said.
Cobb says the use of the 3D printer has been a vital resource to helping the community and to the student's curriculum.
"For us this is how we think learning should be that you're looking for real life application we call it authentic learning and then we give student agency, let them have ownership in how they solve those problems," Cobb said.