Future Forge aiding local health centers

By Mary Alice Murphy

Photos Courtesy of Future Forge

Stephen Lindsey, chairman of the board and one of the original members of Future Forge and its predecessor the MakerSpace, said it all began about two years ago. He, Gabe Farley and Nick Prince started the MakerSpace.

"It's our community so we have to stick together," Lindsey said. "What I like to resort to in times of panic is what Nelson Mandela said: 'We do not fear. We lead and together we stand strong.'

"My mother is a lab tech at Gila Regional Medical Center and when we learned that there was a shortage of personal protection equipment (PPE) for hospital staff, we stepped up to make what was needed," Lindsey said. "One of the local teachers, Ayshford Henegan, helped us find the sources for patterns and specs to make items needed by local health care groups. We have already provided face shields to Fort Bayard Medical Center, Hidalgo Medical Services, Silver Health Care and Gila Regional Medical Center, which ordered 100 of them. We told them we did not want to charge for them, but we would take any donations to keep providing what the community needs. We are swamped right now, with making the face shields, respirators, masks and gowns. Teachers and professors are doing the research on what’s effective and best for the needs. Our items are not medical grade and not approved or inspected by medical authorities, but we are following federal guidelines in our production processes."

He noted that similar products have been inspected in other locations and are in use in places, like Washington, California and New York.

"I feel a duty to help out how we can," Lindsey said. "Best case scenario, the hospital and other health care facilities will get the medical grade PPE they need, but this can help out in the meantime. If we can save only one person, it will be worth it. If I get sick, I'll be going to our hospital, and I know I will have good care there."

Future Forge started as a for-profit, but about 1½ months ago, the group became a non-profit, Lindsey told the Beat. "Once we secured a space and knew it was going to work, we decided to apply for 501c3 status. We have three officers. Our treasurer is Gabe, our secretary is Mary Stone, I'm the chairman, and Nick Farley is the at-large board member."

He said Prince had decided to keep doing his computer repair business, which is located in the Quonset hut on Pope Street.

"We formally opened as a non-profit on Feb. 7, 2020, about a month before different things began happening in the world," Lindsey said.

He said he and Gabe had always wanted a community space. "I've been here 20 years, and I've gone through school here, including Western New Mexico University. I knew we needed something to captivate the interest of and occupy the youth of the community."

His sister lives in Los Alamos, which has a MakerSpace. "She introduced me to it, and I came home with boxes of electronics and 3D printers and other stuff. She also gave me contacts with people."

Lindsey said a national group, the Nation of Makers, was a contact his sister gave him, and it was going to hold a conference. "I couldn't afford the fee to attend, and my sister said: 'No, we want to take you as our guest.' So off we went to Santa Fe. We met lots of like-minded folks. When we got back to Silver City, we escalated our intent to secure a space. We found the space at 212 S. Bullard and the landlord agreed to rent out portions of the space until the group could afford the entire square footage. "We are using about 3,000 square feet right now. We need 60 members a month to be able to pay for the full 12,000 square feet."

Along their journey the idea of glass recycling and recycling in general came up when the town ceased doing recycling. Future Forge has a plastic shredder and mold. "We were getting overwhelmed, so we asked if anyone wanted to take it on. Chris Lemme stepped up and led the fundraising to get it all started to crush glass. The town agreed to buy a glass crusher, which we have now received and are training our staff on it, including me. The town will use the material as trench fill, basically turning it back into the sand it started as. We now have a separate group, Silver City Recycles, in partnership with the town, which we helped to facilitate."

Future Forge is located at 212 S. Bullard St, across from the Home Furniture warehouse. For more information on what the group does and has to offer, email futureforgenm@gmail.com or visit the website https://www.thefutureforge.org/home.

Although COVID-19 governmental mandates have closed the facility until future notice, its regular hours are Tuesday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

He noted on the Future Forge website, people who wish to donate can click on Donate. "We have enough right now to continue with our efforts to make health care PPE, but we always need more for this project and future ones."