HELPING OUT

helping out | MASK GUARDS

The elastic mask guard straps Windsor fourth grader and Cub Scout Gavin Kendrot made with his father, Shawn, as part of an effort to help healthcare workers feel a little more comfortable while wearing face masks to protect themselves during coronavirus pandemic.

Windsor fourth grader and Cub Scout Gavin

Kendrot holds up a mask guard he and his father, Shawn, made for northern Colorado healthcare workers amid coronavirus pandemic.

Windsor Cub Scout pitches in to help healthcare workers amid coronavirus pandemic

BY ANNE DELANEY

A10-year-old Windsor boy wanted to help local healthcare workers’ in their fight against coronavirus, and Gavin Kendrot teamed up with his father to make their work days a little easier.

In the last 10 days, Gavin Kendrot and his father, Shawn, have used a 3D printer to make more than 100 mask guards for northern Colorado medical workers.

“I like to help the community,” Gavin Kendrot said. “And it would hurt my ears to wear a mask eight hours a day.”

The elastic straps attach to the mask straps, pulling them tighter on the head and easing rubbing and chafing on workers’ ears.

Gavin Kendrot, a Grandview Elementary fourth grader and member of a Windsor Cub Scout pack, was motivated to take on the project when he parents saw a Facebook post about a similar effort.

As a Scout, Gavin was eager to get involved locally. He’s been in scouting for four years and is a member of Cub Scout Pack 57 in Windsor.

Shawn Kendrot, a Cubmaster and den leader of Gavin’s pack, helped Gavin with the 3D printer. Gavin bought the printer last year with money he earned after helping the Cub Scouts in its annual fundraising effort.

“I think it’s awesome,” Shawn Kendrot said of Gavin’s gumption. “It goes to the scouting spirit.”

Gavin raised more than $18,000 selling popcorn last year for the Scouts’ fundraiser. He used some of the money he earned from the work to buy the 3D printer.

“It was a lot of hours going doorto-door,” Shawn Kendrot said. “It was many hours of getting people to purchase from him. It was Gavin, working hard to put the time and effort into it.”

Amanda Kendrot said after Shawn

and Gavin made an initial batch of the mask guards, the family reached out to local healthcare facilities to ask if workers were interested in receiving the mask guards.

Dr. Gregory Golden, a NCMC pulmonologist and one of the Kendrot’s neighbors, picked up a batch of maskguards from the Kendrot’s porch and took them to his colleagues.

“My co-workers were amazed that a young person was wanting to help in this way,” Gloden said in a news release from Longs Peak Council, Boy Scouts of America in Greeley.

Gavin and Shawn have requests for a few more mask guards, and they are sending others to a hospital in Texas through connections with a family friend.

“We’re really proud of him. It’s nice he can work with his dad,” Amanda Kendrot said, adding Gavin learned a lot about the 3D printers in school. “They’re so computer savvy.”

North Colorado Medical Center nurses hold up mask guards made by Gavin Kendrot, a 10-year-old Windsor fourth grader, and his father, Shawn. Over the last 10 days, the Kendrots have used a 3-D printer to make the guards that are designed to minimize rubbing and chafing of face mask straps.

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