Navy engineers join senior leadership group to aid special needs children

Photo By Teri Carnicelli | Carlos Valle (left) and David Veloz, engineers with the Littoral and Strike Warfare Department at NSWC PHD, explain how to modify commercial off-the-shelf toys for children with limited motor skills to a group of teachers from Carl Dwire School in Oxnard, Calif., on Dec. 12. The school, operated by the Ventura County Office of Education, serves children in preschool through fifth grade with moderate to severe disabilities. (U.S. Navy photo by Teri Carnicelli/Released)  

PORT HUENEME, CA, UNITED STATES

12.16.2019

Story by Teri Carnicelli 

Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division

A team of engineers at NSWC PHD spent the last month using their personal time—including lunch breaks—adapting 30 commercial battery-operated toys for use by children with special needs, thanks to a $1,000 grant from the command’s Senior Leaders and Managers Association (SLMA) used to purchase the toys and modification equipment.

Approximately 20 engineers from the Littoral Strike and Warfare Department re-wired the toys and added large push-button activators attached to jacks that can be plugged into the toys, so children with gross motor skill impairments could enjoy playing with the animated figures. The figures included everything from “dancing” monkeys and unicorns to teddy bears and Christmas trees.

Two engineers who volunteered their time, along with members of SLMA, presented the toys to children at Carl Dwire School in Oxnard, Calif. on Dec. 12. The school, operated by the Ventura County Office of Education, serves students from preschool to fifth grade with moderate to severe disabilities including developmental delays, gross/fine motor problems or medical conditions such as autism and genetic disorders.

The donation was facilitated through the personal connection of a PHD employee, who not only is a member of SLMA, but whose daughter also attends preschool there.

Linh Algra, division supportability manager for the Over-the-Horizon Missile Launching System in L Department at NSWC PHD, was at a parent-teacher event in October when she overheard Lisa Edwards, a speech therapy pathologist at Dwire School, mention how expensive adaptive toys were to purchase—whether from catalogs or the internet—making it difficult for the school to provide them to students.

That comment was brought up by Algra at an SLMA luncheon a short time later. The nonprofit leadership organization, formed in 1982 and funded by senior-level management at NSWC PHD, was looking for a charity or school to donate to before the end of the year. The organization typically funds command activities, such as mentorship training events, but was looking to expand into more community-focused charitable endeavors.

Algra told the SLMA board she had the perfect solution.
“She had all the resources—the board, the engineers and the techs—to help with modifications for the toys,” said Dwire School Principal Stefanie Rodriguez. “What they did was phenomenal.”

She explained that specially adapted toys normally cost $50 to $350. Schools that work with special needs children generally don’t have the budget to purchase more than one or two, at most.

For SLMA board members David Gonzalez and Kara Colby, who attended the adaptive toy distribution event, the best part was seeing the happy faces of the children as they played with their new toys.

Colby’s husband, Chad, is the L44 branch manager at NSWC PHD. “He brought the idea to his team, and they were excited to be involved,” she said, adding that she and her husband modified one of the toys themselves at their home.

Carlos Valle was one of the engineers from L44 branch who worked on the project.

“I was one of those kids who liked to take things apart to see how they worked, and then put them back together,” he said. “So, working with the toys was very interesting.”

The L Department engineering volunteers were led by David Veloz, who first spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to modify the toys. He developed a method that didn’t involve soldering but instead uses crimp connectors, which means Dwire School staff members can modify toys themselves in the future with basic equipment.

Veloz wrote step-by-step instructions and created a YouTube video. The engineers also put together packets of tools for the teachers that included wire strippers, 4-in-1 screwdrivers and digital multimeters. They also donated a box of audio jack adapters that was previously destined for the recycle bin.

Veloz was even prouder of the work he and his teammates did after he learned from school staff that this type of push-button activity can teach the nonverbal students how to communicate in the future.

After the toys were presented, Veloz and Valle worked with a group of nearly a dozen Dwire School staff members to walk them through step-by-step the process of adapting a commercial battery-operated toy.
“The L44 branch really took the bull by the horns and provided all the technical support to make this project successful,” Algra said.

• Date Taken: 12.16.2019
• Date Posted: 12.16.2019 13:35
• Story ID: 355857
• Location: PORT HUENEME, CA, US
• Hometown: OXNARD, CA, US