On Thursday, October 29, 2020, Congressman Bob Latta and Paulding County EMA Director Ed Bohn visited Antwerp Local School and went live on the ALSTV Archers Live YouTube channel to recognize two Antwerp students, senior Eric Thornell and freshman Connar Shiple. During the quarantine — and still today — Thornell and Shiple have used the school’s and their own 3D printers to create over 1,000 face shields and other related items and have distributed them to local emergency agencies, factories, health care providers, and schools. Anyone can watch Latta and Bohn’s recognition of these students on the school youtube channel or the West Bend News channel.
Both of these young men independently decided to make this possible by starting off with existing designs and then modifying in the 3d print software to make these fit the needs when certain products, such as elastic were unavailable. Face shields were just one of the items that were being made. Soap and sanitzer holders were made too for companies in Fort Wayne and Defiance.
Representative Bob Latta asked questions of the young men and how they implemented the school 3D printers in with their own to increase production. Shiple explained that his version of the mask would take about 4 hours to build from start to finish because he included a padding for around the forehead and elastic on the back to hold it in place. Thornell designed his face shield so that it did not need elastic, due to difficulties obtaining the material, and the friction of the plastic would itself hold on to the head of the wearer.
