{"id":70519,"date":"2020-08-20T04:54:16","date_gmt":"2020-08-19T18:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/?p=70519"},"modified":"2020-08-18T13:27:45","modified_gmt":"2020-08-18T03:27:45","slug":"team-up-to-save-ears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/team-up-to-save-ears\/","title":{"rendered":"Father & daughter team up to save ears"},"content":{"rendered":"

FATHER and daughter duo Natalie Tingate and Ray Testa have been busy making smart devices to protect the ears of mask wearing workers.<\/p>\n

The products are small pieces of plastic designed to be hooked onto the loops of a mask so that it can rest against the back of the wearers head to prevent ear irritation.<\/p>\n

Ms Tingate said through her work as a nursing assistant at Ballarat Health Services, she noticed that her and her colleague\u2019s ears were beginning to grow irritated by the masks.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad, my brother and I came up with the idea once I mentioned that all of our ears were starting to hurt,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cDad designed and printed a few on his 3D printer and I tested them out at work, made sure they were comfortable and started giving them away to others who wanted them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so many places where people need to wear as mask the whole shift, that pressure in the same spot does get really uncomfortable so we decided to start the Go Fund Me page.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once Ms Tingate set up the fundraiser page, the response from their family, friends and the wider community was overwhelming.<\/p>\n

\"\"
The 3D printer creating the ear savers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Without any advertising, she said that they reached their goal of $1000 in less than a week.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only reason why we reached out for donations was because we wanted to reach a larger group of people and couldn\u2019t do it on our own,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe donations go towards covering the filament costs and general maintenance on the printers so we can start sending them out to places.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople have been so generous and it\u2019s really made the difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

So far, the team have printed and distributed over 600 ear savers to members in the Ballarat and Moorabool community working at hospitals, schools, supermarkets, cafes, beauty salons and emergency services.<\/p>\n

With no plans to halt the operation any time soon, Ms Tingate said they will continue making them until the donations run out.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey work really well for the surgical masks but can be used with most other types of handmade masks as well,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"\"
The ear savers come in a variety of colours.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe ear savers are plastic so you can fully wipe them down with antiseptic wipe, alcohol swaps or hand sanitiser and then use them again.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe make them in a whole heap of colours, they\u2019re small and can fit in your pocket.\u201d<\/p>\n

The most recent batch of ear savers were mailed to staff at Ballarat District Health and Care, Ballarat Blood Donor Centre, Ballarat Health Services, Ballan IGA and Royal Freemasons Ballarat.<\/p>\n

Ms Tingate said that although it\u2019s a simple operation, he and her family do it because they want to continue to help people.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are selling them for like $4 each but dad and I thought that it was such a difficult time for people it would be better off to just give them out,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been struggling with the restrictions myself and I know so many frontline workers not only health care workers but also childcare workers and supermarket would be too.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want to make a profit, we\u2019re simply using the donations to cover the costs, we just want to make this hard time right now a little more comfortable and easy for someone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Tingate regularly updates the Go Fund Me page about where the ear savers are to be donated next and has invited the public comment suggestions for organisations to send them to in the future.<\/p>\n

To donate to Ms Tingate\u2019s EAR SAVERS – Pay it forward fund<\/em>, visit gofundme.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FATHER and daughter duo Natalie Tingate and Ray Testa have been busy making smart devices to protect the ears of mask wearing workers. The products are small pieces of plastic designed to be hooked onto the loops of a mask so that it can rest against the back of the wearers head to prevent ear […]<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":70590,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-70519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFather & daughter team up to save ears - Ballarat Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/team-up-to-save-ears\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Father & daughter team up to save ears - Ballarat Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"FATHER and daughter duo Natalie Tingate and Ray Testa have been busy making smart devices to protect the ears of mask wearing workers. 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