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protective face shields

Members of the Huntington Community First Aid Squad pick up face shields at Zaro’s Cafe. Photo from Zaro's Cafe

A Huntington Station restaurant owner decided to make use of his establishment’s dining room while remaining open for takeout during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Edmund Zarou assembles face shields. Photo from. Zaro’s Cafe

Edmund Zarou, of Zaro’s Cafe, has turned the family-owned Greek and Italian eatery into a staging area to create plastic face shields for first responders. The restaurant has been able to produce several shields a day with the use of 3D printing technology and to date has made 500 copies of the protective gear.

Zarou said in an email that he recognized the need for medical supplies as the coronavirus quickly spread in the area.

“We wanted to turn a negative into a positive,” the restaurant owner said, adding he owns four 3D printers from another one of his businesses.

“When I realized I could make these shields it was a no-brainer,” he said. “We immediately shifted the empty dining room from Zaro’s Cafe into a makeshift mini face shield factory for first responders, medical workers, fire departments and EMTs [Emergency Medical Technicians] all over Long Island. We even sent a bunch to a hospital in Chicago.”

Zarou said while he continues to receive an overwhelming amount of requests for the gear, he and his family are working hard to keep up with the requests and plan to do so until the pandemic ends. 

“We are here to support the heroic health care workers as they take care of us,” he said.

The restaurant owner said the family-owned business knows about struggles and is grateful for the support they have received from the community.

“We are all about family and doing what we can to help others whenever possible,” he said. “We have been here almost 27 years and have had our own struggles the last few years. Small businesses have gotten hurt, so we appreciate our loyal regular customers as well as new ones who are still just finding out about us.”

Zaro’s Cafe is open for curbside pickup and delivery Tuesday through Saturday, 1 p.m. to
8 p.m. Those who would like to donate for Zaro’s Cafe to purchase material for more shields can do so via the mobile payment service VENMO by using the handle “ezarou” for the recipient or the digital payment network ZELLE by entering [email protected] as the receiver.

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The Stony Brook School STEM faculty Jeremy Donovan, left, and Stan Winston wearing the laser cut face shields designed and assembled in The Stony Brook School’s STEM lab. Photo from The Stony Brook School

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and shortage of materials hospitals are facing, a small group of high school students and faculty from The Stony Brook School have come up with a solution that can be produced in their STEM lab and, soon, across the country — protective face shields at a fraction of the originally expected time and cost, according to a press release from the private school.

Stony Brook University Hospital recently reached out to the surrounding community to secure usage of 3D printers to produce face shields. The hospital, whose design would take approximately three and a half hours per shield, sought to commision 5,000 shields per usable printer.

When the Stony Brook School was alerted of this, Stan Winston, director of STEM Education, and Jeremy Donovan, STEM teacher, thought they could come up with a much more efficient solution with the help of their highly-skilled students. In a little over 24 hours, Winston had presented the idea to his classes — in virtual classrooms since the outbreak of the pandemic — and a prototype was made.

After three major roadblocks were overcome by the students, a final solution was found. In lieu of a time-intensive 3D print, a face shield constructed with the STEM lab’s laser cutter could be made in just 35 seconds. With the new design and process, about 100 can be made each hour at a cost of under 50 cents each, and the school will be producing at least 5,000 of them for SBU Hospital.

Students instrumental in coming up with this solution were Stony Brook School sophomores Cole Spier and Tiger Winston and junior Ethan Magnuson.

“Our students are committed to serving the world with their character and leadership,” Stan Winston said. “With their years of problem-solving experience in our STEM courses, along with a huge community effort, we have reached a great solution to a pressing issue facing our country today.”

Stony Brook University Hospital has accepted the school’s design and proposal, according to The Stony Brook School.