The Glenelg (Md.) High Robotics Team has donated over 1,000 pieces of personal protective equipment, including 300 face masks for the University of Maryland Medical Center.
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Jena Ialongo is getting ready to graduate from Glenelg High School in the western part of Howard County, Md. She plans to attend the University of Maryland, College Park in the fall.
In early April, she began leading the Glenelg High School Robotics Team on an endeavor that had nothing to do with robots. Having learned about the University of Maryland School of Nursing’s (UMSON) call for hand-sewn face masks for patients and staff at UMMC through a friend who had received an email from her 4-H group, Ialongo shared the information with Raymond Gerstner, an engineering teacher and the team’s faculty advisor.
He charged the team with contributing not just a few, but 888 pieces of personal protective equipment (face masks for UMSON and other organizations and face shields in response to a call from Open Works, a Baltimore makerspace).
“The 888 comes from our first Robotics Team number of 888, which was assigned in 2002, when the team first started,” Gerstner says. “We will not be stopping once reaching the goal; this will be something that will continue until no longer needed.”
As of April 28, the team had surpassed its goal of 888 donated items and was set to surpass 1,000, of which at least 300 were face masks for UMSON’s initiative. About a dozen students, alumni, and parents are participating in the sewing initiative.
“Sewing is not a prominent skill that students learn in robotics,” Ialongo says. “I have always been interested in sewing, so I decided to start making masks. And as engineers, we are always willing to try something new. A few team members knew how to sew, but many learned quickly.”
Gerstner says that while sewing has not traditionally been part of the team’s skill set, it is increasingly being recognized as a vital component of product design. “This initiative may be the catalyst for the purchase of a new tool, such as an embroidery-type sewing machine for larger production, for all of the engineering and robotics students at Glenelg to learn a new skill,” he says.
The team’s motto, as noted on its Twitter profile, is “Selfless service is our purpose!”
“The team’s efforts and teamwork are always humbling,” Gerstner says. “They never cease to amaze me. Many of my colleagues have asked me for the last nine years, ‘Why do you spend so many hours outside of school working with the Robotics team?’ Time and time again, they show many of these selfless acts. This will definitely be one I will remember the rest of my career, as will many.”