Constable: Covid-19 helpers spread across the suburbs

By Burt Constable

It would be fun to start this column with, "A computer whiz nicknamed 'Radar,' a veteran police chief and a woman who does lighting for rock concerts walk into a bar." But a bar wouldn't be big enough to fit all the players behind this volunteer effort to make protective face shields for police officers and others on the front lines of COVID-19.

"It's 100% a team effort," says Brian DeKind, 35, a businessman and part-time Kildeer police officer who planted the seed. "We realized as this pandemic started it was hard for police departments to get PPE (personal protective equipment). Working at the police department, I saw it firsthand."

He and Kildeer Police Chief Steve Balinski talked about "the frustration where we just couldn't get enough PPE," Balinski says. But they saw how 3-D printers were being used to make face shields.

"We went out and bought two printers," says DeKind, who set up his shield-making shop in his DeKind Computer Consultants company in North Barrington. His 13 employees - including his wife and CEO, Monika, and his mom, Fran, who works in accounting - immediately donated time and money to the project.

Then, his customers got involved.

Samantha and Scott Falbe, owners of Intelligent Lighting Creations in Arlington Heights, have used DeKind's computer services for years and had a couple of 3-D printers in their warehouse. So they brought them home and started printing shields from their Lake Bluff basement, with help from son Austin, 11, and support from their 7-year-old son, Blake. Each machine can make one shield an hour.

"It became obvious and clear the couple of printers he (DeKind) had and the couple of printers we had weren't enough," Samantha Falbe says. So she went on social media and asked if anyone had 3-D printers. About a dozen friends across the suburbs joined the manufacturing effort, and also volunteered 3-D printers at local schools.

"People were so coming out of the woodwork. It's really cool," Falbe says.

"It really touches the heart," says Balinski, whose Kildeer force no longer had to search online for a product that might be too costly and on back order. His department took only what they needed from volunteers.

"In these times in law enforcement, we have to think of our neighbors," says Balinski, who used his police chief contacts to distribute the face shields to officers in Buffalo Grove (where Balinski served with the police department for 36 years before retiring as chief), Wheeling, Long Grove, Hawthorn Woods, Lake Zurich, Deerfield, Bannockburn and elsewhere. "The guys say thanks. They are very appreciative."

DeKind picks up the face shields from the volunteers and his team assembles them.

"When else would I go to the houses of people I've never met, wearing gloves and a mask, and pick up something?" he says, acknowledging the strangeness of these days. His conference room now boasts seven 3-D printers.

"The chairs are pulled back and the conference table is full of 3-D printers making shields," DeKind says. "A colleague said, 'I can't believe we're making things.'"

Every employee has contributed to the effort, and so have others, including Ann Derrig, Steve Conway, Nick Thommes, Zach Motter, Jim DeMory, Chris Jackson, Amy Roby, Jolanda Florentinus, Craig Shields, Drew Holmes and Pat Smarto. Tammy Dreyer, Kildeer's police records clerk, helped assemble the shields.

The volunteers already have produced and distributed 2,000 face shields and DeKind says they have adjusted the printers to make respirator-style masks that can replace the in-demand N95 masks.

"We've still got requests for the shields, but not in such an urgent manner," DeKind says. Printing a single respirator-style mask takes almost three hours, about six times longer than each face shield.

DeKind got the computer bug as a kid growing up in Antioch playing the computer war strategy game "Command & Conquer." He taught himself by trial and error to fix his computer when things went wrong. "You know how your guidance counselor pulls you in freshman year and says, 'What do you want to do?'" DeKind says. His Antioch High School counselor's office happened to be next to the district's IT office, where District Technology Coordinator Mick Torres hired the teen to troubleshoot during the school day.

"During period change, a teacher would grab me to do some work," DeKind remembers. He got the nickname, Radar, after the character in the "M*A*S*H" TV show who had a knack for knowing what had to be done.

After graduation, "I went away to school, and clients kept calling and saying they needed my help," DeKind say. "I pulled a Bill Gates and left."

He opened his company in 2001. But a ride-along with local first-responders got him hooked on another path. He spent 12 years as a paramedic and eventually became chief of the now-defunct Antioch Rescue Squad. He then went through the police academy to become a part-time police officer in Kildeer, where he typically works one or two shifts a week and conducts training.

"I can't sit still," DeKind says. Neither can his army of volunteers.

"Everyone from different walks of life comes together to do this," DeKind says.

"What a great community, right?" Falbe says. "I love it, love it, love it."