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Coronavirus updates from News 8 at 6:30 p.m. April 6, 2020

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — There are dozens of videos online on how to make any number of types of personal protection equipment

When a history teacher at New Palestine High School was told there was a need to make face shields, he figured out a way to make them and enlisted others to his cause.

Mitch Burk bought a 3-D printer for his classroom and, until a few days ago, he hadn’t touched it.

“I brought it home, fired it up. This was actually the very first thing I ever printed on this 3-D printer and the first one finished in 45 minutes and I realized how easy it would be to kind of mass produce on a smaller scale at least,” Burk said.

Over the weekend, he produced 25 headbands that will be used as face shields. His wife and mother are both health care professionals. His efforts are personal since his wife has moved into the front line of care of COVID-19 patients.

Once Burk got the hang of producing the face shields, he enlisted the help of a fellow teacher, who with the permission put the school’s 3-D printers into service.

“He jumped on board as soon as contacted him. We have a handful of machines there and he has been stopping by the school every morning to reload. He got about 40 finished over the weekend and we are looking to produce as many as we can over the next, until the need runs out,” Burk said.

So far he has helped produce 70 face shields, but, more importantly, this is a call to arms.

“I feel like it has become my space here to let schools know they have so many untapped resources. Obviously, the buildings are going to be pretty much vacant the next couple of months, and I have been trying to yell from the rooftops that schools have these things there and available, whether it is gloves, masks, goggles, we have already been able to collect those. 3-D printers just seem like the next step,” Burk said.

The New Palestine school district already has hundreds of gloves and goggles from the science department, N95 masks from the construction classes, and disinfecting solution.

Burk says by the end of the week they will have produced about 200 masks at a cost of 75 cents in material per mask.

Indiana coronavirus timeline

New Palestine defeats Greenwood 77-69.

New Palestine defeats Greenwood 77-69.

Zionsville beat New Palestine 26-24.

New Palestine defeats Muncie Central 54-14.

New Palestine defeats Pendleton Heights 41-21

New Palestine defeats Whiteland 19-8.

Bishop Chatard defeats New Palestine 51-48.

New Palestine defeats Greenwood 71-53.

Roncalli defeats New Palestine 57-47.