Print Your Mind 3D's Second Hand-a-thon in Edmonton
Print Your Mind 3D's Second Hand-a-thon in Edmonton
We were once again joined by over 45 students, volunteers, and teachers as we worked together to assemble 3D printed hands for children with upper limb differences around the world. The event was held on December 16th at Queen Elizabeth High School in their library. Students spent the majority of the day working with patient and determined volunteers from APEGA to assemble the 3D printed prosthetics.
As part of the Hand-a-thon, the hands are 3D printed prior to the event and brought to the venue along with other tools, hardware, and a group of people who are passionate about creating a difference. Over the span of about 5 hours the teams of 2 students per hand work to assemble the over 20 3D printed pieces to form a functioning mechanical prosthetic hand. Volunteers work closely with the students to help with some of the more complex areas and ensure a high level of quality control. Once the hands are completed they will be sent to the Enable Community Foundation who matches them with recipients in need around the world.
We are very proud to sponsor these events through our Enviromaker initiative. Through this initiative we allocate a portion of all profits to support education, innovation, and sustainability through events like our Hand-a-thons. In total, 20 prosthetic hands were created during the event. As well as much of the printing, Print Your Mind 3D donated the hardware kits which are needed to assemble the hands to function. Along with our event we had in March in Calgary, we will have donated a total of 50 hands through our Hand-a-thon events in 2016. This is something we are extremely proud of.
We want to say a special thank you to everyone who helped make this event possible. Edmonton Public Schools for letting us use the library at Queen Elizabath High School along with all of the staff volunteers. APEGA (Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta) for all of their support and bringing over 15 volunteers. The volunteers not only took the full day off to take part in the event, but also a Saturday afternoon to go through a practice building session so thank you so much for that. The Enable Community Foundation for the amazing work they do to improve upon hand designs and match children in need with printed hands. And finally, Aaron Dublenko and his Innovate High School program. Aaron's program allows students to get high school credit for project based learning opportunities like our Hand-a-thon and without the support of him and all of his students participating this event would not have been possible.
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