When the coronavirus pandemic hit, Tony Sleck immediately drew on his "nerdy" side to fulfill his desire to help others.
The Lisbon man has used a 3-D printer to create more than 800 surgical mask extension straps — free of charge.
The straps attach to the elastic bands on surgical masks to make them more comfortable.
"Especially because what I have been through, people have always helped me," said Sleck, a volunteer firefighter with the Lisbon Fire Department and a senior designer at Milwaukee Tool.
His brother, Chris, died 25 years ago of arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy, a rare genetic heart disease, when he was 14.
When he was diagnosed with the same disease 10 years later, his neighbors — many of whom he barely knew — did Sleck's yard work when he was recovering from surgery.
"It was all the random things people did for me," he said.