Two Million Essential Ears
Ears. We all have them, and they’re quite important. That’s why I’m helping get the word out about the Two Million Essential Ears Initiative. This is an effort by Glowforge to connect Glowforge laser engraver owners with healthcare workers who are in need of these little devices that can help save their ears.
During this COVID-19 crisis, many of the frontline workers are wearing all kinds of face masks, many of which latch around their ears. After hours and hours of wearing these masks, their ears can develop fatigue. That’s what many people have sought to solve…how to relieve the pressure on ears from the masks.
Many of these designs have been created already, but this design seems quite robust and can be stacked to create the most possible with the least amount of waste possible.
To quote Dan Shapiro, CEO of Glowforge, “Three weeks ago, I went to my garage planning to print personal protective equipment (PPE) to donate to our local front line workers. But I couldn’t figure out which design to print, or who would accept the donation if I did. The more I learned about homemade PPE, the more clear it was that there wasn’t an easy way for people to help. So I did what I always do when I’m confused: I called a bunch of people who are way smarter than me. I’ve spent the last several weeks with my team working with biomedical engineers, epidemiologists, biochemists, material scientists, doctors, and other experts. I asked them all the same question: What can we do to help? They also all agreed on one thing: Do the thing you can do the best, the fastest, and the most effectively, first.”
SO WHAT IS THIS INITIATIVE?
So, what exactly is the Two Million Essential Ears Initiative? Glowforge is turning their homepage, glowforge.com, into a hub to connect local people who want to help with healthcare workers and those on the front lines that need the help. I really think the key there is “local.” This is meant to connect people within the same communities (within about 20 min driving distance from one another), so you get the equipment to those who need it faster, eliminating the need for shipping and bottlenecks.
HOW DO THESE EAR SAVERS WORK?
These little ear savers are such a simple thing, but they work quite well. For many of the face masks that secure behind the ears, you would take one of these ear savers, put it behind your head, and secure the mask pieces that would normally go behind the ears to this ear saver. Then, this ear saver can just sit on the back on the head, relieving the pressure from the ears. Simple, right?
Another cool thing about them is it allows people to use masks that are not the proper size. When there are shortages of particular sizes, these ear savers allow people to use masks that are too small or too large for them and they fit properly, meaning more people can be protected.
Image credit: Glowforge
BUT WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP?
There are a few things you can do to help. First, if you have a Glowforge and some acrylic, consider printing some of these ear savers yourself. You can get 77 of them out of a single sheet of Medium Proofgrade Acrylic and it only takes 68 min. (That’s with the Basic model that I have…if you have the Pro, it will print a little faster than that.) That’s pretty quick!
After you’ve made some of these ear savers, go to glowforge.com and log on there to connect with frontline workers in your community. Also, share with anyone you know so this network will become useful to your community and others as well.
But what if you don’t have a laser engraver? You can still tell people who have access to lasers or other tools to go to glowforge.com and connect with healthcare staff in your area and see what they need. They might have a need for something else, and maybe you making the connection can spur things along. Also, share with your friends and ask them to share using the hashtag #save2millionears. Share with healthcare workers that you know also…we need them to be there also, so we can make sure these ear savers can get to those in your community who need them.
NOTES FOR GLOWFORGE USERS CREATING EAR SAVERS:
Remove the masking first. This will save you a lot of time!
Set the “free reorder” lines to Draft Score instead of Cut
You should ignore the engrave that comes up first. That is just the disclaimer at the top of this design that Glowforge had to include. No need to spend time engraving that. Plus, it’ll probably be off of the usable area anyway.
HELP WHERE YOU CAN
Thanks for taking the time to read this and for helping where you can! Go to glowforge.com to connect people in your communities and share this blog post with anyone you can! #save2millionears
