Hardwork and dedication
Engineering class creates a custom wheelchair for teacher’s daughter
Mr. Redman, Faith, and Mrs. Willis celebrate the successful creation of the custom built wheelchair.
October 21, 2016
Mr. Redman sent out an email on Sept. 13 to the Liberty staff asking if there were any project ideas that they would like the engineering class to design. Mrs. Willis answered suggesting that the class take on the project of creating a wheelchair for her daughter.
Mrs. Willis’ daughter, Faith, suffers from a disease called spina bifida. As soon as Mr. Redman told the class
about Faith, the class jumped right on it without a second thought.
Spina bifida is a congenital defect of the spine in which part of the spinal cord that often causes paralysis of the lower limbs.
Wheelchairs are very expensive costing up to $900, so the engineering class decided they would collect money from students and teachers around the school and create this wheelchair themselves.
The class ended up raising more than $450 and it took approximately $450 to buy all the supplies needed to build the wheelchair.
“I loved how the wheelchair turned out,” Mrs. Willis said. “The students and Mr. Redman had the idea to make it pink and I loved that they found customized pink wheels to put on it.”
The rest of the money will go towards a project that some of the students in engineering are taking on, which is taking this whole thing to the next level.
The engineering students are now working on making kits for wheelchairs for children suffering from spina bifida all around. The students were excited to have this opportunity to make the wheelchair.
“It’s a good experience to give back to the community,” senior Wyatt Lake said. Lake and his classmates Nick Beseda, Bryan Eplett, Hamza Mansoor, Jimmy Moore, Josh Parmentier and Sam Schuettenberg designed and built the custom wheelchair.
Mr. Redman is excited that he was apart of this project and proud of his students for taking on this huge task and creating a custom wheelchair for Faith.
Having this wheelchair will make getting around much easier for Faith.
Right now Faith is able to crawl on all fours to get to short distances and is sometimes able to use her walker for longer distances, but having a wheelchair will help her be able to go even longer distances and play outside more.
“She’s caught on so fast on how to turn and maneuver the wheelchair,” Willis said.
