3D creation helps raise funds for Our Promise

The Sentinel-Record/Grace Brown- Lakeside Middle School students Brionna Mattingly, 13, 2nd from left, and Reese Vines, 13, hold up their 3D printed donation box for the Our Promise House at Lakeside Middle School on Thursday, December 13, 2018. They are joined by Sara Runyon with the Debutante Courtier, left, EAST facilitator Melissa Ellis, and Stacey Pierce with Our Promise.
The Sentinel-Record/Grace Brown- Lakeside Middle School students Brionna Mattingly, 13, 2nd from left, and Reese Vines, 13, hold up their 3D printed donation box for the Our Promise House at Lakeside Middle School on Thursday, December 13, 2018. They are joined by Sara Runyon with the Debutante Courtier, left, EAST facilitator Melissa Ellis, and Stacey Pierce with Our Promise.

Two Lakeside Middle School students used a 3D printer to create a house-shaped donation box to help raise funds for the Our Promise Cancer Resources House.

Students Brionna Mattingly, 13, and Reese Vines, 13, spent about two and a half weeks working on the project in their EAST class at Lakeside Middle School. After four different trial runs, they finally finished it and handed it over to the Debutante Coterie.

"My mom is part of the Debutante Coterie and they were wanting a piggy bank to put money in because they are building a house for Our Promise," Vines said.

The house will provide patients and caregivers with educational and financial support, along with an overnight stay when traveling for a treatment, according to the project's Facebook page.

Our Promise Cancer Resources is a nonprofit organization with a mission to provide caring, professional support and education to cancer patients, survivors and caregivers, the Facebook page says.

Our Promise provides financial assistance to cancer patients for transportation, gas cards, treatments, prescriptions, utility bills and housing payments.

This is accomplished through direct financial assistance, social programs, and educational services. Our Promise Cancer Resources is a permanent charitable organization associated with the Hot Springs Debutante program.

The girls said that the most difficult aspects of the design process were completing the chimney, which is where the donations enter the box, and figuring out the limits of their 3D printer's capabilities. Despite minor setbacks along the way, they kept working hard to bring their vision into fruition.

"We got onto this app called Tinkercad on the computer and we kind of just put together shapes and used cutouts to cut into these shapes until we saw a shape that we wanted," Mattingly said.

Each time they printed a trial of the house, it took them three days. In that time, the girls learned to make adjustments based on the capabilities of their 3D printer and functionality. They had to make a few sacrifices along the way, like not including windows, but they were both very pleased with the finished product and so was everyone else.

"I think it means a lot to Our Promise. Our Promise House is a legacy project for the Hot Springs Debutante Coterie. We formed a partnership several years ago to make this happen and the house is actually breaking ground in 2019," said Stacy Pierce with Our Promise Cancer Resources.

"The Debutante Coterie decided this year to start a campaign called 'fund a night' because the Our Promise House will house eight rooms for cancer patients to stay in. They are encouraging the patrons who come to the ball to help us fund free nights," she said.

The 3D printed house was presented at the Debutante ball on Saturday to collect donations for the "fund a night" program.

Local on 12/17/2018

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