It started as the idea of two high school students: Maybe we could build adaptive toys for kids who don’t have access.
“One car turned into two turned into five, now it’s an entire community,” said Juan Alberto Palomino-Suarez, the lead programming mentor for Degrees of Freedom Robotics Team.
Co-founder and CEO of Magical Motors, Aanand Mehta estimates that including today's event, which paired five children with cars, his non-profit organization has helped 40 children since it was founded two years ago.
“Going Trick-or-Treating as kids, or racing with your friends in the park something like that is something we should never take for granted,” Mehta said.
Throughout the day, over 40 robotics club students worked on modifying electric toy cars for a "Jeep Hack." The event was a collaboration between Boeing, the Si Se Puede Foundation and the Degrees of Freedom Robotics Team.
Their goal is to pair families with children who have physical adaptive needs with their own personalized electronic toy car, helping them increase their independence and bringing joy.
“Spreading that mission to every child should be our duty,” Mehta said.
Magical Motors creates assistive technologies for kids with developmental and physical disabilities. One of the main ways that they provide access to these children is by modifying electric toy cars. One easy modification is changing the foot pedal to a hand control or remote control, which helps these kids gain back their autonomy and independence.
Olivia is one of the children paired with a car at the event. Her mother Dulce Tapia, said that Olivia saw the other children in her neighborhood with toy cars and wanted to join them, but the foot pedals were a problem.
“She’s definitely come a long way with having better function of her hand movements and walking. They told us it was going to be very hard for her to walk,” Tapia said.
Olivia’s mother describes her as independent.
“When she’s not capable she gets frustrated and annoyed. So, seeing this that she has the independence to go wherever she wants to go — it’s awesome,” Tapia said. “I could not have asked for a better gift.”
Mehta and Palomino-Suarez view these cars as an extension of the children they are being gifted, allowing them to be more mobile than they were before. After the children receive their cars, there may be added modifications to create a better fit.
“It’s the most comforting, beautiful experience in the world for me personally when I see these kids drive the cars for some of the first times, and achieve this sense of mobility and independence,” Mehta said. “It makes every single moment of sweat and hard work worth it for all of us."
Palomino-Suarez says you don’t need a bunch of tools or a STEM Center to do something like this in your own community.
The supplies to build one of these cars are more accessible than purchasing a pediatric electric wheelchair, which can cost up to $25,000 and take up to five years to receive, according to Mehta.
“You just need a little bit of passion, a little bit of luck and a community — and that’s what we’re here for, so you’re already a third of the way there,” Palomino-Suarez.