Project Profile: Magic Wheelchair Costume
Members of the Triple Cities Makerspace recently completed the largest group project undertaken at the Space in quite some time, in collaboration with the Magic Wheelchair organization and an independent artist in Cortland, NY named Crystal Lyon. This project was the creation of a Halloween costume for a child afflicted with cerebral palsy, who lives with his family in Cortland. The child, Jacob Eldred, has never been able to take part in any Halloween festivities due to his condition, although he has always wanted to. His family contacted Magic Wheelchair, an organization which works with local artist, makerspaces, and families of children like Jacob around the United States to create costumes for disabled children according to the children’s preferences and interests, to see what could be done for Jacob. In turn, a Magic Wheelchair representative named David Vogel spoke with Crystal Lyon (as a prominent Cortland artist interested in such activities) and Erik Leonard (as the president of the nearest makerspace to Cortland) regarding the creation of a costume for Jacob; as Erik