Lookinā good as usual! Many thanks to the team! 
Not only do I feel fortunate to have a glowforge in my shop, but honored to have been part of the launch. The capability of the machine continues to evolve, and is a tribute to the work of the team. 
Thank you!
I suspect those ears have been undercounted. I know I made a few Earsavers and distributed them locally (mostly because I was using a slightly different design) and I know many, many others did the same. Either way, thereās a whole lot of grateful people out there who have benefited from the Earsaver program, which Iām proud to have been a (very tiny) part of.
Ditto! We should have a signup somewhere for ānon-signupā amounts of ear savers printedā¦ I bet weāve done a lot more!
Definitely! So many made a wide variety of ear savers. It was great to help in a small way.
Yesā¦I signed up but was never matched, though I made earsavers for a local hospital, nursing home and neighborhood groupsā¦
I made a few thousand that were never counted. Iām certain Iām not alone.
I have no doubt that you all are even more amazing than we were able to measure, because your awesomeness knows no bounds! (And because metrics are hard)
Count me in for 1000.
Within the bounds of privacy and anonymizing, etc, I wonder what kind of data they can mine from the prints themselves. Be interesting to run some searches and see what comes up. Might be more trouble than itās worth to sort signal from noise here, but it would be a cool challenge.
Mahalo!!! Great update. I donāt know what I would do without my 
!!! Thank you for your dedication to the medical community!
While I was between jobs I was making and sending out ear savers too. Now Iām back doing āessential workerā stuff. Just today I got to witness firsthand the excitement when the nurses on my unit opened the package of ear savers sent to us by @rbtdanforth. I wish I could have captured the moment on video to share with you all; it was truly heartwarming.
The charge nurse has been going around with napkins stuck between the elastic and her ears, flapping out like funky Dumbo ears (or the Flying Nun, if youāre old enough to remember her!). She was the first one to try one out (I got to do the honors and put it on for her). Her first exclamation was one of relief at not having her ears in pain, and her second was about how much better her mask fit, pulled more tightly against her face. Score!
When youāre packaging them up and sending them out, you just really canāt imagine the happiness youāre creating. Keep up the good work, yāall!
Any word on shipping improvements for proofgrade outside the US? There are ways to do better here and the last time I asked this question I was told that the issue was not going to be looked into.
At the moment the shipping calculator says it will cost me 105USD in shipping for a single piece of acrlylic (9.50 USD in price). I am in Canada so I understand price can be tricky but Iāve had VERY large orders of materials from other suppliers cost me as low as 35 dollars. I can only imagine how expensive it would be to ship material somewhere that doesnt share a border with the US.
the last time I ordered 100+ dollars worth of material from Glowforge I had it shipped to a friend of mine in the US for free and it cost him 65 dollars to ship it to me. That order was two full boxes of material and the numbers there just donāt make sense. There is a huge difference in price there especially for the amount of goods shipped and the fact that it was fedex gound used for both the shipping calculation for the single piece of acrylic AND the two boxes of materials I had mentioned.
Thanks for the story. I have given them out to nursing homes, walmarts, fast food places, fire stations, police departments, doctors offices, and my local hospital. I have no way of knowing how they have been received.
If your friend was not a friend but a business, He might have doubled (at least) his cost of shipping, The larger the quantities the lower the handling costs per item and greater the net profit which leaves room to spend some of those profits covering shipping. This is true even getting shipping free when all is inside the US.
I usually end up buying more just to get the free shipping that can be half the price of even the larger quantity.
My biggest complaint is that the cost is probably the most expensive shipping Iāve seen from a US company without any other options. I added 15 sheets of material to a cart and calculated and the price was still 135 dollars to ship.
I can go on other mail carrier sites and get much more reasonable quotes (as low as 30 dollars) for an oversized package that would fit a few sheets of proofgrade.
Iām not expecting 30 dollar shipping to Canada but something more in line with other material suppliers would be great. The shipping cost from glowforge is on average double the price of the cost of everyone else Iāve ordered from.
Glowforge is not the actual source of the materials but rather contractor with a contract for certain quality standards. The outside US shipping is likely a third contractorā¦
If your friend is willing to receive and forward your stuff again that would be the way the go.
If thatās the case there is some SERIOUS mismanagement there. Especially where I can get the same quantity of materials shipped from other suppliers much cheaper.
I know shipping charges can be horrible. I run a business where I ship all over the place. Iāve never seen shipping charges this bad though and even without a FedEx or USPS business account Iām able to get quotes for shipping to me MUCH lower than what glowforge offers even it you include packing materials and handling. I can keep ordering though my friend but itās just a clunky solution to something that the company should be doing better.