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Folsom Cordova Teachers 3D Printing Masks For Health Care Workers

FOLSOM (CBS13) — It's been a rough few weeks for teachers, and some are still finding time to give back not only to their students, but also doctors and nurses on the front lines of this pandemic.

3D printers are operating non-stop, producing approximately 200 masks each week. These masks aren't meant to replace the N95 masks, but to use in conjunction with those.

They're being made by teachers in the Folsom Cordova school district. They say their Career Technical Education (CTE) program is "the perfect fit for the crisis that we're having now."

READ: Face Mask Confusion: What Should You Wear When You Go Outside?

The CTE program includes teachers from nine different schools who are working from home. When they're not putting together a lesson plan for their students, they're using at-home 3D printers to send to a partner hospital.

They started the program on Tuesday and have already delivered over 50 masks to Dr. Megan Babb, D.O. at Mercy Medical Group.

Swipe through pictures of the 3D printer production from the teacher's homes: 

Stephanie Bird Lab
(credit: Folsom Cordova Unified School District)
Faith Caplan printers
(credit: Folsom Cordova Unified School District)
Faith Caplan One Mask
(credit: Folsom Cordova Unified School District)
Faith Caplan masks
(credit: Folsom Cordova Unified School District)
When your Mom is an Engineering Teacher
(credit: Folsom Cordova Unified School District)
Stephanie Birds Lab
(credit: Folsom Cordova Unified School District)

Doctors and nurses in the Mercy Medical Group couldn't be more thankful. And district officials couldn't be more proud.

Doug Lewin is one of those teachers from Vista Del Lago High School.

"Besides teaching, you want to feel part of what's going on and sittin' at home, you feel a little isolated and this way I feel like I'm doing my little small piece," Lewin said.

Teachers finding a new meaning and new direction in these uncertain times, un-masking a new purpose, designed to save lives.

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