Four youths couldn’t hide their smiles despite wearing masks when receiving their Leaders of Tomorrow awards last week.
They certainly know a lot about masks and face-shields – they have made approximately 2,000 shields to protect Okotoks and southern Alberta residents from COVID-19 since the pandemic started in March 2020.
“It’s been a long time with the four of us working together to get these shields made,” said Owen Plumb, a recipient of the Okotoks Leaders of Tomorrow High School award. “A few weeks ago, we finished assembling the last ones and we sent them out. But as of now the project is officially over – unless we see another increase in demand.”
Owen's sister Abigail Plumb, cousin Nicholas Plumb and friend Emma Cunningham were all selected as Leaders of Tomorrow recipients. (Abigail, Nicholas and Emma in the junior high school division).
They began making the shields from Owen’s family garage on his 3-D printer shortly after students were sent home for schooling in March 2020.
Upon completion they were donated to businesses, schools, doctors’ offices, virtually everyone who put in a request. There was no cost for receiving the shields, which are estimated at $4 apiece.
The material costs were covered by donations – the labour provided by the four youths, their friends and family.
The project exploded as volunteers from across the Foothills and Southern Alberta heard about the venture. Volunteers with 3-D printers started helping with the production of the shields.
“We started off with my printer and then we started a Facebook group and then we had four or five printers going with all of them trying to optimize the printing profile while still trying to maintain the quality,” said Owen, a Grade 10 student at Strathcona-Tweedsmuir School.
The Leaders of Tomorrow and Heart of Okotoks are sponsored by the Town, The Okotoks Rotary Club and the Western Wheel.
He estimated it took about 45 minutes to print each shield – or make the parts of the shields, that is.
The 3-D printer volunteers would drop off the shields at various locations and it was up to Owen’s Volunteer Army to assemble them.
Space quickly became an issue as they were done at about 500 at a time.
Evergreen Solutions Ltd. near Aldersyde donated space for the assembly work and cleaning material.
“We went to the Evergreen Solutions building – it is large – and we were super-physically distanced, we had face-shields, masks, we had gloves, every precaution we could,” explained Cunningham, a Grade 9 student at École Beausoleil. “Each person did something different.”
No surprise these are handy youths. All four are members of First Robotics Okotoks.
Fortunately, there was plenty of help with assembling the shields.
“Every time we did a batch it would take us from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday,” Owen said. “We came together as a group. There were about 10 of us altogether.”
Emma was the Stevie Wonder of the group – making sure the shields were signed, sealed and delivered.
“I sealed all the shields in this plastic bag with this fancy sealer – it was my favourite job actually,” Cunningham said.
She had no idea what she was getting into initially.
“I just thought it was another one of Owen’s projects he wanted me to help with,” Emma said with a laugh. “It grew into something way bigger. I was astounded by the amount of thanks we got… a different experience that helped so many people.”
Owen’s initial goal was to make 100 shields.
Abigail, a Grade 7 student at École Beausoleil, was in Grade 6 when the project started, but the age difference didn’t matter.
“I was still involved with everything like they were,” Abigail said. “In making the face shields I was given the job of washing the parts before they were assembled. The jobs were great to do.”
École Beausoleil Grade 9 student Nicholas said he was all over the place when it came to assembling the shields.
“I think the only thing I didn’t do was the sealing,” Nicholas said. “I was quality control, washing – putting them in alcohol to clean them off…”
Owen participated in all of the aspects. However, he got derailed for a few minutes early in the project when he got a surprise phone call from Premier Jason Kenney informing him he was the first recipient of the Northern Lights Award in April 2020.
“It came as a shock,” Owen said. “I wasn’t expecting to have that kind of exposure. To have Mr. Kenney notice our project and find it to be worthy of note was really cool. We had a good conversation.”
Receiving awards is nice, but all four said it was better to give than to receive.
“A lot of people were saying thank you,” Emma said. “Whenever we dropped them off at a school, they would go and get the principal.
Brother and sister Owen and Abigail shared the same highlight.
“For me it was when we dropped off the shields at the Foothills Country Hospice Society,” Abigail said. “They were just so thankful.”
Owen agreed.
“The hospice delivery was special,” he said. “Our delivery really managed to help them. I loved seeing the looks on the people who were receiving the PPE. They were grateful, but I was really grateful to help them out.”
Nicholas said he was grateful for the thanks, but his highlight was a grand vision being completed.
“My highlight was seeing a thousand face shields on a table and being like: ‘Wow, we did this,” he said. “That was very impressive.”
