“I felt that it would be fun to do something for somebody else, and actually using this amazing technology for some good.”Įighth grader Miki Mori has worked on several versions of the printed prosthetics. “It made me feel like there was a purpose to what I was doing whereas before it was really just things for myself,” he said. Marsh said it’s been trickier than expected scaling and adapting the e-NABLE child hand prototype to Thomforde, who is missing two fingers versus a whole hand and needs an adult-sized prosthetic, rather than a child-sized one.Īlthough the project’s been harder than seventh grader Rory Boyd expected, he’s enjoyed it all the same. The Star of the Sea students have been tinkering with Thomforde’s prosthetic finger designs for a few months with Marsh’s help. Thomforde and wife, Rene, have since done a story hour at Barnes & Noble for Star of the Sea students, and he and Rufo have discussed ways the school might work with his children’s charity. “It’s kind of neat how God puts it all together.” “So it’s a little bit of a payback circle. “It’s just kind of ironic that my focus is children, and now children are helping me get through my difficult times, when that’s pretty much where my and my wife’s hearts are, to help kids through their difficult times,” he said. He also sees his collaboration as fitting since he’s the founder of Serving Our World, a children’s charity in Thailand and East Timor, which he runs with his wife, Rene. “It’s really a neat school, that they are challenging kids, seeding them with these ideas that can be bigger than what they expected, and it can be more useful than just something that they can get tired of or bored with at home, you know with a toy or an instrument,” Thomforde said. Thomforde and FabLab teacher Aaron Marsh tinker with Thomforde’s prosthetic fingers. Thomforde was impressed with the Star of the Sea students. While he was still recovering, the assistant pastor at One Love Ministries, Kakaako, went online looking at prosthetic options and came across e-NABLE. Oahu resident Michael Thomforde had lost two fingers on his left hand in a woodworking accident on June 30.
Then they received their first “client,” not a child but an adult. Soon after Marsh submitted his class-created prototype to a newly revamped e-NABLE site, they were approved.
It doesn’t matter if the plastic prosthetics hold up long-term since the children often grow out of them before wear-and-tear sets in. One e-NABLE child prosthetic hand costs about $15 in parts. Three-dimensional printing has been a relatively cheap and efficient way to make alternative prosthetics. (HCH photo | Anna Weaver)īecause kids grow so quickly, it isn’t cost-effective to make expensive prosthetics for them since they soon outgrow the devices. Miki Mori, center, one of the students working on the prosthetics project, uses a computer program to design 3D models. So Marsh came up with the idea of contributing to e-NABLE, a site that provides 3D printing prosthetic models, instructions and a matching service to pair donor creators with people who need prosthetics. There are only so many plastic toys a kid needs after all. The students taking the class would be excited about learning to design and print items initially but then get a little bored. Daughter, Sarah, a Star of the Sea sixth grader, sometimes shows new students the ropes and has participated in the prosthetics project.Īfter he started the class, Marsh said he noticed a problem. Marsh’s son, Abraham, a Star of the Sea graduate who is now a Kaiser High School student, and Marsh’s wife, Lisa, fill in for him when he’s traveling for work. He has volunteer taught the FabLab class to fourth to eighth graders as an afterschool enrichment program since fall 2015. Marsh should start an afterschool 3D printing class! So he did. The start of 3D printing and the idea to work with e-NABLE came from aircraft mechanic, 3D printing hobbyist and Star of the Sea parent Aaron Marsh, who offered to donate a 3D printer to his children’s school about four years ago. But what benefit does that have on society?” “We have kids who love technology, video, playing Minecraft and all these kinds of things, which are fun. An early hand prototype sits beside other FabLab student projects.
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