A group of high schoolers have worked together to create a modified wheelchair-stroller so that their teacher's husband could take his baby son out.
As reported by CNN, Jeremy and Chelsie King welcomed their son, Phoenix, earlier this year. However, after initially finding out they were expecting, father Jeremy was left concerned about how he would help his wife manage due to the fact that he uses a wheelchair.
Jeremy's mobility was left impaired after he underwent surgery in 2017 to remove a brain tumor.
"We really just wanted a way to have, you know, walks as a family and for him to be able to do everything that a parent without physical disabilities does," wife Chelsie told NBC.
More on this incredible story in the video below:That's when 32-year-old Chelsie - a middle-school theatre instructor at the private K-12 school Bullis School in Potomac, Maryland - reached out to fellow educator Matt Zigler.
Zigler runs the Bullis School's creative lab, and teaches a class called Making for Social Good.
"It seemed like the sort of perfect challenge for this class. One, it was great to have it as a challenge, but two, it was great that it was somebody in our community that actually could benefit from it," Zigler told NBC.
After virtually interviewing the family on their needs and the local fire department for safety advice, the class got to work on coming up with ideas and creating designs.
Over the winter semester, the students borrowed a wheelchair from the school nurse, purchased the parts they needed, and even 3D-printed any parts they required. And after working together, the WheeStroll was completed.
The WheeStroll is essentially a wheelchair, specifically designed to have a stroller attachment that would safely allow Jeremy to take baby Phoenix out and about.
One of the students who worked on the WheeStroller, 18-year-old Jacob Zlotnitsky, told CNN: "The hardest part of the project was putting ourselves in the shoes of a person with physical disabilities.
"To achieve a successful project we had to use empathy and really make sure we were thinking about everything a person with Mr. King's disabilities would be forced to consider."
After welcoming their son on March 4, the WheeStroll was in use just one week later.
Jeremy says the WheeStroll has allowed him to experience things with his son that would have previously been impossible - adding that it has given his family "more freedom of movement".
Congratulations to the King family, and to Mr Zigler's incredible class!
