ECU takes on COVID-19
Taylor Walden uses a laser engraver to create parts for face shields her company is producing.
March 20 was a sunny post-spring break day at ECU. The only difference was students were packing up to leave instead of getting back into their campus routines.
“It’s kind of tough,” freshman Shyheem Spell said as he and three friends packed up a truck for the trip back to his home in Pinehurst. “It (stinks) your freshman year had to change.” Not far away, Mallory Myers finished packing her mom’s car. “It’s sad,” she said. “I know all my friends are bummed. It’s a lot different energy from moving in.”
A month later, Myers said online classes were going well for her, but she missed being on campus. “By talking with my friends from ECU daily, it has helped to make this adjustment a bit easier,” she said. “I am … looking forward to the fall, and I am hopeful that we will all be able to return then.”
More than 5,000 students moved out of their dorms and completed the semester online with the rest of the ECU student body due to COVID-19. But they, along with alumni, faculty members and staff members, were committed to keeping on and doing what they could to help ECU and their communities deal with the coronavirus.
For example, Taylor Walden ’19, owner of Simple and Sentimental, which creates personalized gifts, has reworked her equipment to build protective plastic face shields.
She started a GoFundMe account, and for every $8 raised, she can produce a face shield. As of mid-April, the company had produced and shipped more than 2,500 shields around North Carolina and to New York, Washington state, South Carolina and Virginia.
At ECU’s Innovation Design Lab, students, faculty and administrators teamed up to produce masks and shields using the lab’s 3-D printers.
The printer constructs a mask in 1,425 layers in about three hours. The team has about 20 printers available for production. Sarah March, a sophomore biochemistry major and Honors College student, was one of the students involved in the effort.
“I first got involved after being inspired by a lot of similar projects all over the nation and world,” said March, whose father, Dr. Juan March, is an emergency physician at Vidant Medical Center in Greenville and professor at the Brody School of Medicine.
A 3-D printed mask made by ECU students.
Antonio Leslie, left, Trevor Jones and T.J. Smaw help Shykeem Spell pack up outside Gateway West on March 20.
She said the most difficult part of the project is to make the masks and shields comfortable for those wearing them, and hopes they never have to be used.
Other alumni and friends are also chipping in. Following an April email from Interim Chancellor Ron Mitchelson, nearly $60,000 was raised by mid-April for groups such as the Student Emergency Fund and the Students’ Treasure Chest, a student run philanthropy organization.
By April 13 the Treasure Chest had received 51 requests for COVID-related needs, although the demand is expected to increase significantly, said Lauren Thorn, associate dean of students and one of the STC advisors. Requests have been technology related, as some students lack access to a computer, printer or webcam for their online courses. Others are struggling to pay bills and make rent due to lost wages from unemployment.
Another resource, the Purple Pantry, distributed nearly 2,000 pounds of food in March in response to COVID-19. The group’s mobile unit served 55 students with 419 pounds of food the first two weeks of April, said Tara Kermiet, associate director of the ECU Center for Leadership and Civic Engagement.