CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A UNC Charlotte student is making a difference for frontline heroes near and far. He's making life-saving face-shields for frontline workers in Charlotte and Central America.
When Max Foley isn't in class as a computer engineering student, he spends some of his free-time putting together the face-shields after his 3-D printer does much of the work.
"It's certainly not what I'm studying," he said as he laughed.
Foley never expected he'd be making face-shields, but he's been at it for months. He started making them towards the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic when supply wasn't keeping up with demand.
"People wanted to help. People wanted to make sure people were safe," he explained.
He knew there was a need, and a community wondering how they could help frontline workers. So, having access to e 3-D printer, he started doing research and trying different prototypes to see what he could come up with.
"It went from costing me $3 to make one a single face-shield, all the way down to 50 cents to make a single face-shield," he said.
It also took a lot of patience, time, and trial and error.
"From an hour to make a face-shield, to maybe 10 minutes," he explained.
Once he got it down, he kept going. Donations poured in from the community on a GoFundMe page, helping him buy the supplies.
"In a matter of days, there was more money in the GoFundMe than I had enough time to spend on making these face-shields," Foley said.
He's made more than a thousand of them and is still making them when he has time. A few friends help him with logistics, delivery, and assembly after the printer does its work.
"I'm just trying to get them to people who they might help the most," he said.
He's given them to those who need face-shields most.
"I was donating them to the YMCA or to healthcare professionals, and really trying to get them to frontline workers," he added.
When he heard about a desperate need for face-shields in Belize as cases surged in the Latin American country, he stepped up again.
He sent 100 face-shields from Charlotte to healthcare workers on the frontlines.
"I really feel that this was something that my community did," he humbly said. "A lot of people just needed an outlet."
He maintains that he was just the manufacturer, putting his engineering mind and 3-D printer to work in an effort to help protect.
"If you put in front of people a good thing that they can do, or a way that they can help, more often than not, they'll take that opportunity," Foley said.
He hopes his actions will inspire others to pay it forward.
Have a relative or friend in another state and want to know when they can get vaccinated? Visit NBC News' Plan Your Vaccine site to find out about each state's vaccine rollout plan.