Music4America Turns to PPE

Volunteers from Music4America, a local nonprofit group formed by middle- and high-school students, have been making and donating protective equipment to Bay Area hospitals to support the fight against COVID-19.

In normal times, M4A would have been giving performances at senior centers and hospitals. But with live events put on hold due to the pandemic, members of the group looked for other ways to give back to the community.

Led by former M4A president Jason He, the group decided to make face masks and face shields.

According to current president Yinuo Tang, more than 40 members of the group pitched in to produce nearly 3,000 pieces of personal protective equipment. The equipment was donated to 16 hospitals and senior centers, including Pleasanton Hospice, Alameda Health Consortium, and Doctors Medical Center of Modesto.

Jason Wei, leader of the M4A Jazz Band, had experience with the 3D printing of face shields and gathered a group of fellow students to help. Although the process took up to seven hours each, M4A produced 761 3-D-printed face shields. Reyna Li, a fourth grader, and her brother, Mingtao, printed more than 550 in just two months.

Using CAD modeling software, M4A designed two versions of the 3-D printed face shields – one with foam padding across the forehead for comfort and one with lighter-weight plastic for portability. More than 230 were donated to local hospitals, including Kaiser Permanente San Jose Medical Center, San Ramon Valley Regional Medical Center, and Stanford Bayers Eye Center. Both versions could be disinfected and reused.

M4A secretary Joanna Chu also organized the construction of handmade face shields based on an instructional video from YouTube.

Over a three-months period, 30 M4A members were able to produce 1,249 handmade face shields, which were sanitized by Christine Li before being sent to local hospitals. Cecilia Guo, Lisa Wang, and Ryan Ge each produced more than 100 face shields.

M4A has also been sewing cloth masks for donation. Led by Maya Lu, a group of 13 members produced more than 400 masks over a two-month period. Lu said each mask took about 30 minutes to produce, including cutting, ironing, stitching and washing.

While most were regular cloth masks, the group also produced masks with a clear plastic covering in the middle. Requested by the Lighthouse Community Charter School, the masks allow for lip reading and ease of communication for people with hearing impairments. Fifty-nine of the special masks were sent to the school, along with 50 regular masks.

Chu also organized a fundraiser, with the group selling more than 300 face shields to people returning to work, to purchase more materials. Another fundraiser is planned for August. For more information, please check out this website.

(This article has also been published at The Independent (our local newspaper).