STEM Students in High School And College Successfully Built Personalized Go Carts For Disabled Children

Source: http://img.insideedition.com/

STEM students from New Britain High School and Central Connecticut State University technology education undergraduates came together to make something extremely helpful and innovative. 

These extraordinary students built fully-functional electric carts as adaptive wheelchairs from scratch for families who cannot afford to buy them for their children. Every go cart construction is entirely built through donations. 

The organization that was started in the University of Delaware has a local chapter called “Go Baby Go”, where these students are a part of, gives disabled children access to independent mobility.

“What this is designed to do is maybe for an hour every day let the kid take control of their own mobility,” Central Connecticut State University student volunteer Connor Boman told CBS news.


Source: https://www.insideedition.com/

The students finished two custom carts last week for 7-year-old Kelicia and 8-year-old Mosiah, so they and their families went to New Britain High School to try out the carts for the very first time. Their smiles were through the roof when they each got into their brand new go carts. 

“[Mosiah’s] face was smiles the entire time,” Central Connecticut State student Connor Spencer said. “It’s a priceless reaction to see the parent and child reacting to, ‘I’m moving. I’m doing this by myself. No one is pushing me.’ That reaction is priceless to see.”

While Kelicia took a longer time to get used to the driving, once she got the hang of it, she didn’t want to stop, and her mother Kechisa Mathis couldn’t stop her tears of happiness from falling while running alongside her daughter. 


Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/

“They said she wouldn’t do it,” Mathis said, while hugging Kelicia’s occupational therapist. “They said she wouldn’t do it. And y’all made that possible. Thank you!” Mathis told CBS News that Felicia was born with Trisomy 18, which causes developmental delays because of the extra chromosome, and her doctors only gave the 7-year-old months to live. “She’s going to have a field day in this car!” Mathis mentioned regarding her daughter’s test drive at the school hallway.

The Go Baby Go program gives the STEM students an opportunity to experience building robots with a purpose to further their engineering knowledge.

“I like being hands-on and being able to use the drills and everything,” Heavyhn Kimber, an 11th grader student said. “And being able to see the parent. When I saw [Kelicia’s] mom tear up, it almost made me tear up. It’s just beautiful to see how happy she is to see her daughter in the car.”

 

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