Cruisin' 'Star Wars' style
LOREN BENOIT/Press Barrett Limtiaco-Ruppel rides in his remote-controlled car Wednesday afternoon at Gizmo-CDA. A group of Coeur d’Alene students won an honorable mention in a global contest, called The Inventor’s Challenge, by helping retro-fit a ‘Star Wars’-themed car for their friend with cerebral palsy.
LOREN BENOIT/PressJanai Limtiaco smiles as she watches her son Barrett Limtiaco-Ruppel have fun in a remote controlled Star Wars themed car Wednesday afternoon at Gizmo-CDA.
LOREN BENOIT/PressBarrett Limtiaco-Ruppel is all smiles as he rides back and forth in his remote controlled Star Wars themed car.
LOREN BENOIT/PressHannah Stowe helps create a car radio outfitted with Star Wars songs and sounds for Barrett Limtiaco-Ruppel when he rides in his remote controlled car.
LOREN BENOIT/PressBarb Mueller with Gizmo-CDA watches Bear Coleman steer Barrett Limtiaco-Ruppel's car Wednesday afternoon at Gizmo-CDA.
By DEVIN HEILMAN
Staff Writer
COEUR d’ALENE — The license plate reads "Barrett" in the cool "Star Wars" style.
The hood ornament is a blazing red Rebel Alliance emblem, accompanied by an image of Darth Vader and stormtroopers.
The light sabers on the little car also add a stellar touch.
"They got just about every detail we could have asked for," Janai Limtiaco said. "It’s fantastic.”
Limtiaco's 5-year-old, Barrett Limtiaco-Ruppel, had plenty of reason to smile Wednesday while cruising in his new "Star Wars"-mobile. And as a mom whose son has cerebral palsy — a disorder that disrupts motor function, balance and muscle tone — Janai was also smiling.
"He’s never experienced something like that and we’re just now moving from a manual chair to a power chair,” she said. "This is a great practice for him to understand those concepts.”
Barrett's custom kiddie car looks pretty sweet, but the work that went into building it is even sweeter. A group of 12 local homeschool students, ages 8-12, spent the last seven weeks tweaking and fine-tuning the kiddie car in Gizmo-CDA's purposeful engineering class so the car could be fun and safe for a child with a disability.
It doesn't move very fast, just fast enough to provide a sense of independence. Its movement is assisted by a remote control and it has an emergency shut-off switch on the back.
The project earned the youths an honorable mention in the global Imagination Foundation's 2017 Inventor's Challenge.
"It is completely electric,” said young engineer Jonathan Stowe, 13. “The motors that control the rear wheels, when they stop getting power, they stop and brake. They’re slow enough and the car’s heavy enough that it just stops."
The purposeful engineering students modified the seat, changed the steering from a wheel to an easy-grip bar, expanded the size of the car, changed the electronics and implemented other changes on the car to accomplish their safety and mobility goals.
“I learned that when you’re disabled, there’s a lot of things you can still do," said young engineer Summer Staples, 10.
“Kids with disabilities, even though they’re different, they still need care, and they still need to be cared for and included," said young engineer Kaitlyn Sinclair, 11.
Barb Mueller of Gizmo-CDA said while the project was a great way for the youths to explore engineering, the scientific process and problem solving, it was also a project with heart.
"What was really good, they saw Barrett is a boy just like them who wanted to have fun," Mueller said. "Barrett picked up on that and there was this immediate talk and fun. This inclusiveness is one of the most important things.”
Janai, of Post Falls, said the car project positively promoted inclusion and empathy. She plans to get Barrett out to enjoy his new ride in the community as much as possible.
"He’s a happy kid. He’s a very happy kid," she said. "Wherever we can take it, we'll take it."