Students from Holy Savior Menard Central High School in Louisiana recently outfitted a dog wheelchair for Roo, a puppy who was born without forelimbs.
Roo was being fostered out of the Heart of Louisiana Humane Society. Roo's foster owner made a social media video asking for help.
That's when the high schoolers came together to make a special wheelchair that allowed Roo to move.
"Roo will need a lifetime of some special care but due to her weight and size, there are not many options for wheels or anything similar," the high school said.
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In November, the high school robotics team measured Roo for the wheelchair. Now, Roo has her wheelchair.
"That is one of our favorite things about robotics, being able to go out into the community and do things that are actually helpful to the community, things that people might not think that robotics is involved with,” Tonya Shepard, the Steel Eagles Robotics coach and teacher at Menard,told KALB-TV.
The team designed and fabricated the wheelchair using a 3D printer. One challenge is that Roo has already outgrown the prototype made by the students — but Shepard told KALB that is quite OK.
“It’s kind of an evolving process until Roo reaches her full size,” Shepard said. “We’re going to continue to adjust and alter and get it to be exactly what she needs it to be. For such a small dog, she’s grown over the last six weeks that we’ve been working with her. So, it’s a lot of fun to see.”
