HELENA -- With personal protective equipment being a scarce commodity for front line workers, Helena’s Fusion Robotics club stepped in to do what they could do to help by making masks, and then face shields.
In total they’ve created over 100 masks and 30 face shields for front line workers, something Miranda Shaefer says they’ve truly enjoyed doing.
“It's been really cool, because there's just so much crazy stuff going on and it can be very uncertain how best to assist," said Shaefer. "This is definitely a big problem, and it's not super hard for us to help out with it. So, it's just felt really good that there's something that we can easily do that's helping out a lot of people.”
Though the team has been doing what they can to help, originally they were set to compete in the First Tech World Championship to try and stake their claim on the robotics world. With COVID-19 canceling the event, Willa Bishop said the project they’ve undertaken has been a good consolation prize.
“It's really good for our team, because we still do chats, we still have our group chat running," said Bishop. "It's just really a nice way to make us stay connected and still be helping out our community, even if it's not through other robotics related stuff.”
Though it may be how the team envisioned the end of the year going, the work they've done to help other in a time of need has made their coach extremely proud.
“These kids are amazing. They work hard, they're so dedicated not only to the mission of robotics and building robots, but they're also dedicated and reaching out into the community," said Mike Ellis. "I can't say enough about their dedication, and the work that they put in, day after day after day.”