Tricycle from students more than a gift

Jada Mayson

A team of ISU engineering students and faculty members recently helped make one 8-year-old’s dream a reality.

Kia Jordan, 8, from Ellsworth, wanted to ride a bike, but because of meningitis she contracted as an infant, she has limited mobility. So, she got a special tricycle as a holiday present.

Lisa Jordan, Kia’s mother, said Kia’s grandmother read an article last year about a team of engineering students who made a tractor for a disabled boy. Jordan says she thought the team could conduct a similar project and construct an accessible tricycle for her granddaughter.

Jordan said Kia’s grandmother, Deanna, who works in Alumni Hall, contacted Scott Openshaw, lecturer in mechanical engineering and pleaded Kia’s case. Openshaw and his group of students then met with the family to assess Kia’s situation and determine if and how they could help.

Openshaw and Jess Comer, lecturer in mechanical engineering, led the design team that tackled the project.

“We just look for projects that involve both adults and children, basically various life situations to give to our design students,” Comer said. “Kia’s project was one that was proposed and accepted.”

Constructing the tricycle involved welding two tricycles together and designing it according to Kia’s abilities, he said.

The design team met with Kia and her family to think of ideas about how to make a tricycle that would be most comfortable for Kia.

Comer said the team worked five to six hours a week on the tricycle.

Jordan said having the tricycle has enhanced her daughter’s life.

“Kia screams when it’s time to come in from riding her bike,” she said. “I am sure that the students who helped design this modified tricycle did not imagine how much happiness their creation would bring to a little girl.”

The bike will help Kia increase her mobility and allows her to play with her brother, Jordan said, something other children might take for granted.