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Here's how our Make-n-Take at Craig Rehabilitation Hospital in Denver went. We had 5 patients along with some family members, friends, and hospital staff participate in the event. Although the numbers sound small, this was an extremely successful event by our measures. All of the patients had at least lower body paralysis with two being fully quadriplegic. All of the patients seemed to really enjoy this activity. One of the quadriplegic patients worked through the AM P-51 Mustang with a friend's assistance. He seemed to enjoy supervising the construction and mentioned, as he was leaving, that it brought back fond memories of his childhood building tank models. Another patient, a paralyzed mother, came in with her two teenage daughters. The mom asked her kids to try building a Corvette "for grandpa". The younger daughter reluctantly started the kit and soon was absorbed in working on the model. The older daughter then got interested and started working on a GTO model. Both brush painted the interior and then airbrushed the body. I believe these two had far more fun than they thought they would visiting mom at the hospital. We also had a teenage girl who had the use of her hands with a little impairment but stated when she arrived that she couldn't see very well and didn't think she could build a model. She and her father went to work on a Mustang Turbo Cobra kit, with her father initially doing most of the assembly. Our local Iwata representative also supported this Make-n-Take with an airbrush setup. We asked the patient if she'd like to take a shot at painting the car body with an airbrush. At first she declined and protested saying that she couldn't do it but our Iwata rep talked her into it and she really got into it! She decided to paint the body using every bright color we had and based on her concentration and the fun she was having, she wasn't as impaired as she thought she was. I was standing across the room with the therapist who was supervising the event and he pulled me aside and said that "We've never seen her like this before. She's usually pretty depressed and won't try new things but this is a huge breakthrough for her! You guys have worked wonders! This event was also a really good experience for our club members. In fact, one of our members got so excited that he wants to return once a month to hold a Make-n-Take for the patients The therapist was also very interested in making this happen so it looks one of our members will be hosting monthly Make-n-Takes in the future. I'm also planning on writing this event up for submission to the IPMS Journal. Thanks again for providing the kits that made this event possible and successful! Martin Sagara,
IPMS# 44668 |
May 2008 |
