Program Description
Event Details
You can access this live panel virtually on Wed., Oct. 7 from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. MST by clicking on this link - please do not click on the link before the event time: tinyurl.com/y46e8ugq.
Are you interested in learning how Colorado makers have worked toward helping their communities during a worldwide pandemic? Join us online for this live panel discussion on making in the time of COVID-19. We'll be talking about PPE production, fabric mask making, building community and connections, entrepreneurship, and more.
Get to know the panelists:
- Ryan Finnigan has been involved with the Maker movement in various capacities for the last 13 years or so. In addition to being a long-time Maker mentor and educator, he is the Co-Founder of MakerLab @ the Powerhouse in Durango, CO, bringing the first Maker space to the Four Corners area. His involvement in MakerLab has been as Co-Founder, Board of Directors Member, and Director of the space from 2018 - 2020. As part of that, he launched MakerLab's PPE efforts in March 2020, which ended up helping build a comprehensive community-wide distributive manufacturing effort overseeing the coordination of 600+ volunteers and 12 area businesses to produce somewhere in the area of $300,000 worth of PPE and medical equipment, including the first known full PAPR unit. He has since gone on to invent a new product line of COVID-related exterior service area products for restaurants and launched a new start-up manufacturing company, Colorado Parklets. In his personal Maker lifer, Ryan is a professional metal artisan, inventor, roboticist, musician, and all-around avid Make. Learn more about his projects at themakerlab.org and coloradoparklets.com.
- Connie Munson retired from UCHealth in February 2020, which was fortuitous as she was able to help the Make4Covid organization identify needs of first responders to COVID-19. She learned of the many needs in the communities of the Pikes Peak region and worked with others to get needed PPE to everyone. Currently, she is working to understand the needs of children's face masks as schools and learning centers around the region start opening again. For fun, she is a professor at UCCS. You can learn more about her efforts at Make4Covid.co.
- John Norton is retired. He has had the privilege of experiencing a variety of careers, including teaching (math, physics, and computer science in high school) and high tech work with HP, Agilent, and Westone (in IT an manufacturing). Currently, he volunteers with Make4Covid and Pikes Peak Makerspace. He started volunteering with Make4Covid in March just as it was starting up. Make4Covid has been (and continues to be) a wonderful organization of passionate people who came together to help supply PPE that was in short supply to the medical and first responder communities. It is continuing to explore ways to use Makers, community liaisons, and other volunteers to help meet critical needs, mostly within Colorado.
Pikes Peak Library District and Cool Science are celebrating making in October with All Pikes Peak Makes (APPM). A maker is someone who creates - to be innovative, to solve problems, to bring something beautiful into the world, or simply to have fun. Join us by attending this panel or participating in one of our other APPM programs:
- Visit our webpage here: ppld.org/APPM
- Attend our upcoming panel on robotics on Oct. 10
Note: If you will need to connect to the video chat's audio by phone, please contact us at least 48 hours prior to the event for assistance.