NewsLocal NewsIn Your Parish

Actions

STM students build electric therapy chair for 6-year-old girl

Posted at 4:54 PM, Feb 01, 2019
and last updated 2019-02-01 23:15:49-05

Some students in computer science class at St. Thomas More built an electric therapy chair for a six-year-old girl with Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome.

In late October, the students were brought a Fisher Price three-wheeler called a Power Wheels Wild Thing and converted it into an electric therapy chair for Elise. With three months of detailed planning and working (and much more reworking), the wheelchair, less than 3% of the cost of traditional child-sized electric chairs, is now able to be controlled via Bluetooth with an Android phone and by a single-direction button for her therapy.

The chair was a surprise and was presented to Elise today.

“Just to know that no matter how many hours we put into this thing, we knew who it was going to. We didn’t even meet this little girl until now. In this moment, everything we’ve done is worth it,” said senior William Delatte.

“What these young men have done is definitely heartwarming,” said Elise’s father, Tommy Clark.