Impact

Mini-Movers at Purdue modified a car for a young child and her family, creating immeasurable impact. The organization worked with various community partners including the Lead Forward Fellowship, GoBabyGo, Riley Hospital Physical Therapy, and the School of Engineering Technology to facilitate the modification of the car. Mini-Movers has around 15 consistent volunteers learning interdisciplinary skills and gaining disability awareness. Volunteer students at Purdue spent 78 hours working on adaptations through 3D printing, wiring, tool training, and various skills. Mini-Movers also collaborated with 5 student organizations on campus to host an interdisciplinary fair, presenting the car to the family and showcasing social impact clubs on campus. Through regular meetings, lab sessions, tabling, callouts, awareness conversations, and the interdisciplinary fair, Mini-movers was able to impact over 50 students and promote the core tenets of the organization. 

Mini-Movers started at my high school in 2021. Since then, 13 power wheel vehicles have been modified for young kids in the Indianapolis area. When deciding to attend Purdue, I knew I wanted to create the same impact on campus by recruiting college volunteers and utilizing the resources at Purdue’s disposal. Unfortunately, the journey was not as easy as I hoped. My team and I successfully won the grant for the 2024-25 academic year, provided on the basis that we were granted legal support from the university. The university required a faculty member to contact for any approval or conversation, but we unfortunately lost our impact mentor before the fall semester even began. After a couple months, we were able to locate a new impact mentor who provided us with valuable resources and eventually the legal approval we needed. However, the spring semester carried struggles with ordering supplies and recruitment of volunteers. At times I questioned whether creating this initiative on campus was worth the effort, faltering in my resilience. Although Mini-Movers at Purdue faced adversity, I realize now that it was all worth it for the change our organization creates.

This is Mia. Mia has a variety of disabilities, such as visual impairment and muscle weakness, that prevented her from being able to use commercially available power wheel vehicles. She loves sounds, lights, and stretchy fabric. She uses supramalleolar orthoses (SMOs) to move around, walking around 10-15 steps at a time. Mini-Movers was able to modify a power wheel jeep by moving the pedal into the steering wheel, providing safety supports (supportive backing and additional seat belts), and adding 3D printed accessible switches. We customized the car to suit her personality with bright rainbow colors, stretchy fabric padding, and LED light underglow. Being able to present the modified car to Mia at our end of year interdisciplinary fair was an impactful experience for all volunteers, her family, and attendees. Mia enjoyed trying out the car, fitting perfectly and interacting with the modifications to move the car. Mia’s mom, Suzy, was overjoyed for the opportunity for Mia to move around independently and play. Seeing the enjoyment on Mia’s and her moms face demonstrated the change Mini-Movers was able to create for their family.