The Camdenton Robotics Team went all out, to help developmentally disabled children. Now, a local business is putting up $5,000 in matching funds to support the school program.
“The world needs scientists and engineers,” Scott Martin of Scott’s Concrete said. “When we saw the robotics team putting their skills to work making local kids’ lives better, we knew this was a program we could get behind.”
Martin is referring to Go Baby Go, a nationwide program adopted by Camdenton LASER 3284 Robotics Team in collaboration with the Lake Regional Health System. The goal of the program is to give mobility to children under age three with developmental disabilities, allowing them to experience the world in a new light, stimulating brain and behavioral development.
“The robotics team is making things happen and bettering the community at the same time,” Martin said. “They need better funding.”
As soon as Scott’s Concrete announced the matching money, $1,000 came in immediately from the LakeExpo.com Charitable Fund and another $1,000 from Slumberland Furniture in Osage Beach. Anyone can follow suit by Donating Here to the Scott’s Concrete Gifting Fund through Community Foundation of the Lake.
Currently, more students apply for the Camdenton robotics team than can be accepted, due to budgetary constraints. More money means more Camdenton students having an opportunity to learn real-world, problem-solving skills.
For Go Baby Go, the team developed modifications to toy 6-volt Maseratis to fit a myriad of physical disabilities to accommodate 16 local children. Lake Regional therapists assessed each child and the vehicles were fitted in one morning by Camdenton robotics and several teams from across the state.
Eighteen-month-old James Simpson was one of the lucky children given a new Maserati. James is special to the LakeExpo.com team, as he is the son of Founder/Publisher Brent Simpson and his wife Jill.
"James has been a fighter since birth," Brent said. "Born a month early with Down Syndrome, he survived his first weeks by the grace of God, one of the best heart surgeons in the country and the unrelenting vigor of a mother that kept two hospital staffs on their toes through a collapsed lung, a life-threatening blood clot, pneumonia and more needles than a baby should ever have to endure. James went home after his first heart surgery to feed through a tube for six months until he gained enough weight for open-heart surgery. Since then he’s been working to 'catch up' physically, crawling much later than most babies and despite intense physical therapy, still a long way from walking."
What James needed, among other things, was mobility -- the freedom to experience the world by exploring under his own power. Thanks to Camdenton robotics, James is now exploring the world in style.
"It's easy for families to feel like they're alone, on an island, constantly advocating and looking for some understanding within systems that just are not made for their children,” Jill Simpson added. “The Camdenton Robotics Team and Lake Regional bridged that divide, if only for a moment, and the kids drove Maseratis right over it!"
The Go Baby Go project is one of many projects the robotics team embarks upon. It’s just the latest and one of the most celebrated within the special-needs community at Lake of the Ozarks.
“The Camdenton LASER 3284 robotics team is encouraging high-level problem solving, team work, and preparing students to enter the real world where things have to get done by people that think outside the box,” Martin said. “Frankly, the team deserves a larger budget and we’re putting up this matching grant to get the ball rolling.”
To contribute to the matching grant through the Scott’s Concrete Gifting Fund Click Here or send contributions via mail to: Scott’s Concrete Gifting Fund c/o Community Foundation of the Ozark, P.O. Box 8960, Springfield, MO 65801.
