Ann Arbor Pilot Flies Face Shields to Health Care Workers Around Midwest to Help Fight Coronavirus
ANN ARBOR, MI – Once Hans Masing got the green light from his employee, the decision to shift his focus away from work to deliver personal protection equipment to health care workers with his personal airplane was a no-brainer.
Spring is normally an ideal time for pilots to get out and fly, Masing said. So, when the Ann Arbor resident heard about a local need to deliver equipment to more distant locales, Masing enlisted his services with Operation Face Shield. The group gathers locally made equipment for delivery to those on the front lines of the fight against COVID-19.
“Yeah, I have an airplane that’s kind of fancy - it's shiny, it's interesting,” Masing said. “But to me, the real benefit is just in bringing folks together for a common purpose. And that's something that I think we could do more of.
“I think it's a really beautiful thing to see people come together, especially considering the division we have right now nationally, with politics the way they are. I hate all the metaphors of this being warfare, but they're not completely incorrect. We need to do what we can when we're trying to solve a problem as a society and if everyone just contributes a little bit, we can get a lot done.”
Masing’s 1968 Mooney M20F aircraft can normally seat three adults and “some luggage,” he said. Flying solo, the extra space allows him to fit up to 1,000 face shields for delivery.
Masing’s role in flying for Operation Face Shield has resulted in the delivery of 1,200 face shields over the past couple of weeks.
Almost immediately after learning about the grassroots effort, Masing was en route to Philadelphia to deliver 350 face shields to health care workers at Temple University’s Health Center.
A couple of days later, he flew around 500 additional face shields to Warsaw and Fort Wayne, Indiana. Over the weekend, he made his latest flight to Marquette to deliver another 350 face shields.
While Masing normally uses the plane to fly to his place of employment at Veterans United Home Loans headquarters in Missouri, the company gave him its blessing to deliver the face shields amid the spread of the coronavirus.
Masing sees himself as one of the many people doing their small part to help out locally during a global pandemic.
“I'm lucky and privileged to have this resource available, so I'm more than happy to offer it to help,” he said. “Using something that we do for fun and to keep ourselves busy to contribute to a greater good makes me feel pretty good about people in general.”
During his drop-offs, Masing has encountered doctors and nurses who have gone above and beyond their job duties in combating COVID-19 to pick up the personal protection equipment.
Interactions are kept at a minimum to maintain proper social distancing, Masing said, but health care workers have expressed unanimous gratitude for the community’s efforts to manufacture equipment.
Ann Arbor group gathers hundreds of 3D-printed face shields for health care workers
“There’s very minimal contact, with just an elbow bump or a distant high-five,” he said. “They’ve all said they’re incredibly grateful for the equipment because they’re doing what they can to stay safe and protect themselves and the other patient.”
Kevin Leeser, who began organizing Operation Face Shield three weeks ago, said the community effort has resulted in the delivery of more than 9,000 3D-printed face shields.
“I think as important as the volunteers have been, the donations that we have been receiving from all sorts of generous donors,” Leeser said.
For more information on receiving protective shields from the group, or if you are interested in participating in printing the shields, visit the group’s website or Facebook page.
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