Former BCIT students make thousands of PPE items at home for local health-care workers

The Georgia Straight: Two BCIT alumni are using 3-D printers at home to manufacture thousands of pieces of personal protective equipment (PPE) for local frontline health-care workers. Keisha Go amd Jamie Haakons—graduates of BCIT's interior-design and mechanical-engineering programs, respectively—started thinking about making PPE after a pre-lockdown trip to the Philippines. After designing prototypes and turning out the first batches of face shields and ear savers (used to prevent skin irritation from face-mask straps) to be sent from their Coquitlam residence to the Philippines, they learned that international shipments to that country had been halted.