Fab Lab sets up shop in new home at Kennedy Catholic
May 1—HERMITAGE — There are nearly a dozen devices, some of which are pretty involved, in the Valley Fab Lab.
It has laser printers, vinyl etching machines, sewing machines, fabric printers, 3-D printers — high tech stuff.
And Zach Marriotti knows how to run all of them.
"He's trained on every one of these machines," said Jonathan Richardson, manager of the Valley Fab Lab and Mariotti's direct supervisor. "I can go take a coffee break and he can take over."
Marriotti, the Fab Lab's assistant manager, doesn't just run the Fab Lab's high-tech devices. He teaches others — for a $35 fee — about the machines.
He arrived at the Fab Lab a few years ago from Whole Life Services, a Hermitage-based agency that provides services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Marriotti is one of those people. And he's an expert at running high-tech, STEM-style devices.
He and Richardson demonstrated the operation of the Fab Lab's devices for its grand opening Wednesday at its new home in the industrial arts wing of Kennedy Catholic Middle/High School. The Fab Lab, previously located in Sharon, is a joint program by Whole Life Services and the Gannon University Small Business Development Center based in Erie.
The Fab Lab's availability will continue to extend beyond Whole Life and Kennedy Catholic to the entire community, which can access its services and products.
Maggie Horne, director of the development center, said the new location would increase the visibility for the Fab Lab and its services, which can be employed to help businesses with placing logos on materials of all types.
"There's just a variety of machines that you can use to create whatever it is that's your idea," Horne said.
Karen Ionta, president of the Kennedy Catholic Family of Schools, said the Fab Lab collaboration will offer benefits for both partners. The Fab Lab's presence will allow Kennedy Catholic to enhance its science, technology, engineering and mathematics curriculum and bring some of its industrial arts devices back into use.
The Fab Lab also will be able to use some of Kennedy Catholic's wood shop — already equipped with a variety of saws and hand tools — to supplement the high-tech gear.
Ionta also cited the school's cybersecurity certificate program, which could give Kennedy Catholic students the opportunity to earn six-figure salaries directly out of college.
"I'm certainly happy," Ionta said. "It's going to give our students a whole new opportunity."
Opportunity has been one of the Fab Lab's main objectives since it was established in 2021. It's one of several ventures Whole Life Services operates.
Mary Ann Johnson, Whole Life Services operations manager, oversees the agency's business ventures, including the Whole Sh'Bang food truck that operates in cooperation with Underdog BBQ in Erie, which provided a catered meal for those attending Wednesday's ceremony.
Even while having her hands on several enterprises, Johnson acknowledged that Marriotti was the superstar for Fab Lab's opening.
"He's an artist," she said. "I'm just so proud of him."
Marriotti said the machines can create almost anything that anyone could come up with, which might be what makes him most excited about the Fab Lab.
"Pretty much seeing what we can come up with next," he said.
