WALLA WALLA, Wash. — The sewing machine and the 3D printer have become friends.

Local students in the Walla Walla Valley are using their passion for the new technology to help provide comfort — literally — to those who must wear masks in essential businesses and services during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A brother and sister at Walla Walla High School and students at DeSales High School have used modern technology to make mask wearing a much less problematic practice.

“I’ve always loved technology and 3D printing,” said Walla Walla High School freshman Jackson Adams, 15. “I’ve seen it used in medicine and medical technology, and that’s what made me want to go into it.”

The Adams family has taken its love of technological innovation and applied it to today’s needs.

“I’m extremely interested in biomedical engineering and innovation,” said 16-year-old Lauren Adams, a Wa-Hi sophomore. “Being able to print things that can save lives is just a cool thing to be able to do.”

They know they might not be directly saving lives with their most recent project, but it’s coming in handy for medical workers nonetheless.

As mask-wearing becomes more prolific, the U.S. has seen a shortfall in supplies of the crucial antiviral tools, even at hospitals and essential businesses, such as grocery stores.

Luckily, teams of volunteers have busted out their sewing and craft skills to make thousands of masks locally. The masks are washable and meet federal standards.

But even those fortunate enough to have masks have found wearing them all day brings discomfort and sometimes pain as the mask’s loops tug on ears and even rub skin raw over long hours of work.

The solution is a little plastic connector that connects the loops at the back of the head, relieving tension at the ears.

Lauren and Jackson Adams worked with volunteers centered at Walla Walla Sew & Vac and Spas. They took some free designs from online and began printing the connectors — called ear guards — and using them on the cloth masks being distributed from the Rose Street business. After discussions with the volunteers and some tweaks in the design, the Adams kids got to work.

“After dozens, if not hundreds of hours, we worked out the issues and now it’s a pretty well-oiled machine,” Jackson Adams said of the printing system.

Meanwhile, in DeSales’ MakerSpace lab, a similar project has started.

Sophomore Simon Scheel learned of a group of Boy Scouts who had put their design for the ear guards online for free.

“He said, ‘Hey, why not?’” said Scheel’s supervisor at the lab and DeSales teacher Eric Rhode. “It’s just something small to help out the community.”

That small thing, a little piece of plastic, has produced a lot of smiling — albeit masked — faces.

Scheel recently got to deliver 100 connectors to Providence St. Mary Medical Center in Walla Walla. Many more are in the works, and the team plans on delivering them to Albertsons, Safeway, Southgate Center Market and Dayton General Hospital.

Lauren and Jackson Adams have made about 150, as of this weekend, and also donated some to the hospital, along with Walla Walla Police Department, Sharpstein Elementary School, Park Manor Rehabilitation Center and Jonathan M. Wainwright Memorial VA Medical Center.

Scheel’s first attempts at making the ear guards went to Valley Vision in Walla Walla, where a small group of employees got to give them a test run.

Rohde, whose wife works at the eye clinic, said the workers were impressed by them.

From there, they started to produce as many as possible.

Scheel and Rohde, along with DeSales senior Dominic Keene, space out their visits to the lab because the printers are in a shared space.

Scheel goes to the space in the morning and makes sure the printers are functioning and begins the printing process. Rohde then goes in the afternoon and finishes the process. From there, he sends a text to Scheel to let him know the units are ready for delivery. The team is able to print 11 connectors at a time through that process, which usually means they make around 25 per day.

The DeSales group has eyes set on covering mouths even more by printing masks, but that’s a lengthy wait.

“It’s a 10-step process,” Rohde said of mask-making. “There are three filters on each side … we could make one a day, maybe.”

Jackson Adams took a crack at making one as well. The Adams call it the “Darth Vader mask.”

“It makes you sound like Darth Vader when you’re breathing,” Lauren Adams said. The mask, which is up to snuff with federal recommendations, took Jackson about seven hours to print and a lot of the plastic material.

“With the ear guards … we would benefit the most amount of people we could,” Jackson Adams said.

The plastic needed to make 3D printed objects — which are called filaments — is harder to come by these days because of the popularity of these ear guards and the printed masks. Not only that, it’s expensive to print in general.

The Adams family and DeSales have benefited from generous donors.

Lauren and Jackson’s parents, Dan and Teresa Adams, purchased the first batch of filaments for their project.

“It’s a cornmeal paper material,” Jackson Adams said. The Adams searched far and wide and ended up finding some in the Czech Republic.

The Adams’ ear guards are for sale at Walla Walla Sew & Vac and Spas for $4 each. All the proceeds go to helping purchase more of the filament.

Rohde’s work also became a family affair as his parents, Pete and Kathy Rohde, purchased the necessary material for the project.

The Adams’ parents are impressed that a small operation can make such a big difference.

“It’s pretty neat to be able to tinker with designs and all of this would’ve been impossible for high school kids five years ago,” Dan Adams said. “So, I think it’s pretty exciting to see the acceleration of innovation that we’re seeing in 2020.”