MAKING A
DIFFERENCE
HEROES OF THE PANDEMIC By: Kristen Schultz ’98
The tragic spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has altered the lives of every person on the planet, whether directly or indirectly. We in the Lasallian community strive to live each day following the Lasallian motto of Enter to Learn and Leave to Serve. These Lancers have done just that and we thank them for their tremendous contribution. NATE KOLBECK ’03 moved to New York in 2013 to establish an east coast office for a company which produced videos for technology businesses and artists but he slowly realized that the industry wasn’t for him anymore and began looking for new technologies to focus his attention on. That is when he discovered 3D-printing. He founded his current company 3D Brooklyn in 2015 to research sustainable applications for 3D-printing tech in the Brooklyn area dabbling in different markets before evolving into a product design and prototyping studio for New York City inventor-entrepreneurs. In March 2020, 3D Brooklyn was in the early stages of a large product development project for a client preparing to go to Tokyo for the Summer Olympics. Nate has a second 3D-printing business Loop Lab that focuses on 3D-printing at live events. Loop Lab scored a gig for the entire Olympic Games and they were planning on making the move to Tokyo for a month. Needless to say, that job was cancelled as was all the product development 22
LANCER MAGAZINE
work due to COVID-19 related issues. It was then, near the end of March, that Nate heard about open source PPE projects popping up around the world to help make supplies for the frontlines. Nate and his business partner decided to quickly develop their own face shield design which they tested with a few MD friends and then they started producing them and getting them to hospitals. They called this project COVID Supplies NYC. 3D Brooklyn started delivering face shields on March 27th and by the end of May they wrapped up the donation project making and delivering over 16,000 face shields to over 250 hospitals and supporting groups. Along the way they raised $60,000 in donations to keep the project going, were awarded a $20,000 COVID-19 Solutions grant from Mozilla and employed a dozen people on the assembly line for six weeks. As of June, Nate reports that 25% of 3D Brooklyn’s normal business is back and trending in the right direction while Loop Lab is still completely paused. 3D Brooklyn is now offering face shields for purchase to businesses preparing to reopen in hopes that this will replace some of their lost revenue but Nate has committed to donating 5% of profits to a local nonprofit, Veterans Rebuilding Life, who will continue donating PPE to those in need in New York City.
