Community: Off-roading in a wheelchair
Transcript
Ron O’Brion:
Well, we’re trying to help Cody get out in the woods more. With the current chair he has, he’s got a factory power chair, it only has about three inches clearance. He loves to go deep into the woods, and with that, you just can’t do it.
Michael O’Brion:
I grew up tinkering on everything, whether it was bikes, four-wheelers, dirt bikes. That’s kind of where this idea all started from.
I’m pretty close with Cody and his family, so we always spend time together. Even from when I was a kid, I always said, I wanted to make Cody something that he could go to the places that I know he wanted to go, that we never could before.
Man 1:
With that, I’ll yield the floor to team number four. Thank you very much.
Jonathan Roy:
We also move to front-wheel drive. Front-wheel drive allowed us for better traction, moving downhill.
Antonio Giacomuzzi:
I think a big thing that I take from it is the design process. Actually going through, step-by-step, and laying stuff out. I’m very hands-on, I’m very mechanically inclined. I love tearing things apart, so this was kind of a fun project for me.
It was something that we could see going out. You could tear up the yard. For us, we see it as something that we can enjoy doing. Somebody that could use it, that could actually use it in a way that they’re living a better life, not for us just to be using it for fun, that was a big key point for us.
Should I take him through the woods?
Cody O’Brion:
Yeah.
Antonio Giacomuzzi:
Yeah? I heard you.
Michael O’Brion:
We’ve got a pretty strong passion for the outdoors. We got a family camp that he spends a lot of time at, so this just makes that experience for him, up there, even better.
Jonathan Roy:
We definitely learned a lot from each other. The biggest part for me, that was a learning curve, was the transition to going from the design and analysis, to actually building the stuff.
Antonio Giacomuzzi:
We’re going to hit a couple of more bumps here for you, all right?
Terry O’Brion:
Hold on, Cody.
Antonio Giacomuzzi:
There you go.
Terry O’Brion:
I’m blown away. I’m really blown away, only because I don’t know about all of the nuts and bolts, how to put something like this together, but as a mom of a child who’s tried to push these chairs, and watched him not be able to go to all the places that his other cousins were going to at the camp, or anywhere you go. Unless you’re in a city, you’re off-road, with a regular old wheelchair.
This is going to open up Cody’s world so much. It’s so exciting.