ISO: Unused Wheelchair

[Greer Swiston]

Hi,

This is sort of an odd ask. My students are working on a project for a device to help a visually impaired individual who uses a wheelchair. This is a summer project and it would really help their development if they had a wheelchair that they could test with. So if you have one that you aren't currently using ... if we could borrow it for the summer, it would be SO appreciated and know that you are supporting a great cause.

This is a summer program that LigerBots (the high school robotics team) runs in conjunction with NCE where our students volunteer to design and build simple solutions to address the ever present "Participation Gap" for individuals and communities in need. Community high school students are also welcome to participate and learn hands-on engineering and work skills.

There would be no permanent modifications made to the chair. We would ABSOLUTELY return it after August 21st (their final presentation).

We used to have one leftover from when my husband had to use one after his accident, but we actually lent it to a family member who had a bum knee and they are still using it.

Please email me at greer....@ligerbots.org or you can call or text me at (617) 308-6583 ... THANK YOU!

[Greer Swiston]

Once again, wonderful neighbors, thank you SO MUCH to everyone who reached out.  I believe we have what we need!!

Many of you asked for more information about what we do. We are the LigerBots, the Newton high school robotics team founded in 2008. But we are more than just robots, "We don't use kids to build robots; we use robots to build kids" ... one of the ways we do this is to have outreach programs that help students develop real world, whole life experiences. The Adaptive Engineering Summer Internship is one such program. There have been several articles that have covered our exploits since we started this program in 2023. 

• Summer of 2023 Kicked off our Program with Northeastern University where we helped journalists in wheelchairs in Malawi, Africa and built a model for training hematoma detection and treatment for Brigham and Women's Hospital
• Summer of 2024 - we worked on 5 projects
• Summer of 2025 - we partnered with NCE and worked on 3 projects, one of which was a switch activated light panel driven by Lazer Robotics, the Newton FTC team, which won the 2025 pitch competition!

We are entirely funded by donations and sponsorships from generous individual donors and supportive companies. If you or someone you know can support our work, whether it is our Adaptive Engineering Program, our STEAM Outreach Programs or our Robotics Team competitions, we are always looking for more support, especially financial contributions 

Thank you so much for asking!! And thank you to EVERYONE who offered help!!