Most people may not know that United
Cerebral Palsy (UCP) of Commack and the Commack High School staff have had a long-standing
relationship that has provided a number of benefits to the students of
UCP. Several years ago, Mrs. Kaplan, Mr.
Kurtz, and their “Real Problems, Real Solutions, Service Engineering Group” created
playground equipment and adaptive tables for UCP. Continuing this good work, this year the
National Technical Honor Society (NTHS) repaired adaptive and assistive
learning devices for UCP extending this ongoing relationship between these two educational
organizations.
The students of NTHS welcomed the
task of repairing non-functional assistive and adaptive learning devices with
great enthusiasm and vigor. They worked
nearly every Friday afternoon for at least an hour to diagnose and repair the devices. With great success, they repaired five
devices in a very short period of time. Unfortunately, a few of the broken devices remained unrepairable by NTHS
‘technicians’ but that didn’t stop them from trying to diagnose and repair the
presenting issue(s). The repair crews
learned a lot about giving back to the community, hard-work, and diligence
during this experience. The two following reflections, capture the collective experiences
of all what all of the technicians learned and experienced during this endeavor:
“It’s been a while since I put a lot of
effort into a project so to start, this project was daunting. Also, my lack of
experience with electronics worried me. As a result, I thought I couldn’t be of help to my group. Luckily, I
persevered and continued to attend the meetings and soon came to greatly
appreciate the experience. The ability
to contribute to the community in a way that most people cannot felt extremely
rewarding and I’m proud to say that I was a part of the first toy repair group.
If you have the opportunity to give back by sharing your time and labor, I urge
you to take advantage of this opportunity.” Jay Chun
“Being
a part of the UCP repair crew every week at Commack High School as a part of
the National Technical Honor Society was an enlightening experience. I enjoyed participating in this event,
especially being that I had the chance to be surrounded by my friends and peers
as we strived to make a difference in the community. Most people would see a broken device and
throw it out based on the inconvenience that it causes; however, the learning
devices at UCP are ones specially made with auditory and visual components. These devices are important to the students
that utilize them. Also, these toys are
very expensive and not ideal to replace. Being given the opportunity to save hundreds of dollars by attempting
and succeeding to fix the device’s problem was a rewarding experience, and I am
extremely honored to have been a part of this activity.” Becca Cuomo
On behalf of our technicians, the NTHS is
appreciative of UCP for providing the Honor Society with this experience. All of the students involved with this task
did so with vigor and interest that inspired more effort than would have been
possible by any one individual. A
special note of appreciation to Commack Middle School for allowing the NTHS to
use their 3-D printer to create missing parts for the devices.
N.B. To view more abour the devices that were repaired, access this link: