Free 3D Hands charity wins top regional Victorian award
Mat Bowtell’s life's work providing differently-abled with free assistive devices has been recognised with a major regional Victorian award.
WINNING regional Victoria’s top community award came as a big shock for Phillip Island engineer Mat Bowtell.
The founder and director of Free 3D Hands, a charity that 3D prints assistive devices for people with limb differences and amputees for free, was named 2020 Bank of Melbourne Regional Achiever of the Year last week at the Victorian Regional Achievement and Community Awards.
Mr Bowtell said the win meant a lot in an unprecedented year that saw his company switch from making prosthetic hands to face shields as a response to a personal protective equipment shortage.
“It’s given us motivation to move forward and it’s like reassurance that we’re heading in the right direction as a charity,” he said.
“For us to have that reassurance at this very difficult time was important.”
He said the prize would go back into the charity by keeping on a new employee that joined their team after she lost her job due to the pandemic.
Mr Bowtell said heading back to his hometown to begin his company was integral to its success.
“The backbone of a charity is a community and we’ve had an immense amount of support from our local community,” he said.
“Ten years ago it might have been challenging to run a business in a regional area but the nature of what we do these days with being able to connect online has made a huge difference.”
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