Several young children with disabilities in Connecticut are able to move a little be easier today with the help of electric cars made just for them.
This week, students put the final touches on a high school tech project that will touch the lives of the pint-sized drivers behind them.
About 30 Kaynor and Wolcott Tech students are building electric cars for kids with disabilities.
Kaynor sophomore Michael Mullen helped make modifications to one car that will help a child use it for mobility.
“I want to make sure that they’re able to use anything they can to make themselves go,” Mullen said.
For these students, building the eight cars is as much about head as it is heart.
“We have high school students here who are teenagers who normally wouldn’t think about other people and the ability to show that there are other people out there who have needs,” Lee Pelletier, the head of Kaynor’s Electronics Department said.
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In one driver’s seat is Christian Grabowski, just pressing the red button gives him mobility.
“They modified it so he could use his hand to press buttons because he doesn’t walk he has cerebral palsy and autism,” Ted Grabowski said.
His parents say the lesson learned here for these students will go beyond the classroom walls.
“I’m just happy at least that they’re learning and that they share the patience and understanding of a special needs child,” Grabowski said.
And perhaps drive them do more to help others with disabilities.
“It touches my heart it makes me happy to see that see a smile on their face as they’re driving in they’re going,” Mullen said.
The cars came through a grant from the Torrington Chapter of UNICO National and a private donor and are part of the “Go Baby Go” program that helps kids with disabilities have access to independent mobility.
