Thursday, October 1, 2026
Tyler Cuttitta, a junior at Sanford H. Calhoun High School, has been utilizing his extra time during quarantine to serve others. Since the beginning of April, Cuttitta has been volume 3D-printing medical mask adjusters for essential workers. The extenders offer comfort to the ears and heads of all mask-wearers, from frontline health care workers to those filling prescriptions and delivering mail.
Cuttitta has already donated more than 220 extenders to health care workers at St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center, Winthrop University Hospital, Mather Hospital, LIJ Medical Center, Mount Sinai South Nassau, Montefiore in the Bronx and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centers of Long Island. He’s also received thank-you letters and photos of the nurses and doctors wearing his works of art.
“My mom [Christine] sent me a link to an article about a kid in Canada who created a file to print these to help the medical workers,” said Cuttitta, a member Calhoun’s Robotics Team and Computer Club. “I downloaded the file, prepared it for my printer and started printing.
“Each one takes 16 minutes, and I can do as many as five at a time, he continued. “They’ve been distributed to nurses, pharmacists and postal workers.”
While he currently has a waiting list, Cuttitta is also willing to make extenders for any other nurses or frontline workers who need them. He said many requests have come through his mother’s Facebook page.
“I’m printing them as fast as possible,” he said.
— Compiled by Tony Bellissimo
