The story of a student using his talents to help care for others is something Black Hawk Middle School teacher Chad Berrey hopes will become an inspiration for the community.

Berrey reached out to The Record to highlight the work of soon-to-be freshman Roy Briggs, who has been using his own 3D printer and supplies to create more than 150 ear saver straps to help medical professionals reduce the discomfort of a face mask. He’s also made a small number of face shields, and all the supplies are being donated to first responders and hospital staff who will put them to use.

Briggs, who just finished eighth grade, did the work as a project for Berrey’s gifted education class at the middle school.

“My students were urged to do something that they felt passionate about. If you have had the pleasure of meeting Roy (Briggs), you would probably guess he would do something with computers or technology,” Berrey commented.

After schools were closed and a stay-at-home advisory went into effect, Berrey said Briggs asked if he could change the direction of his project to help address the need for personal protective equipment (PPE) among medical providers.

“This is the type of thing that young teachers dream of as they enter the educational field,” Berrey said. “Not only has this eighth grade student demonstrated his extraordinary abilities and talents, he has demonstrated his extraordinary heart and care for others.”

Briggs told The Record in May that he had made about 150 ear saver straps, which attach to the elastic bands of a face mask to keep the bands from rubbing against the back of a person’s ears. He’s donated the supplies to medical providers throughout the St. Louis region and Columbia.

“I’ve heard back that one of the nurses who got one of the mask straps said they would ‘hug me if their arms were 6 feet long,’” Briggs commented. “It really made me realize that even though these mask straps looked and felt so simple, even one of them ended up saving someone a lot of pain and trouble. The masks they’re wearing 24/7 rest on their ears and just aren’t designed to be comfortable for more than a couple hours.”

On top of the ear saver straps, Briggs has made a handful of face shield frames that attach to clear plastic shields, which are much more time and material intensive. He also made one plastic face mask that uses replaceable filters.

Briggs said he decided to make the supplies his class project so that his work would be impactful for someone beyond himself. The project will also fulfill a service requirement to reach the Boy Scout rank of Life Scout.

To make the items, Briggs used his own hobbyist 3D printer and materials. Printing anything takes a lot of adjustments to get right, he said, and printing a lot comes with challenges.

“Printing this much material caused some things to wear down and break, so I had to order new parts and repair it,” Briggs explained. “Additionally, the face shields are very involved to get ready for use. They need lots of cleaning and sanding, and the clear shield plastic needs to be measured and hole punched.”

Briggs said he’s planning to take programming classes in high school and pursue an education in computer science or software engineering. He doesn’t think modeling and 3D printing will be more than just a hobby, but one day he said he might be working on the software that makes such machines possible.