Nick’s Latest Big Project
Nick’s latest big project was supposed to be even bigger. He began intending to build a Ferris wheel 6 feet in diameter, but he ran out of K’nex before he could accomplish that.
He wasn’t defeated. He has a long history of tinkering and improvising. And Easterseals staff had his back at the Eagle Glen group home where he lives, supporting him through Easterseals creative activities.
Supportive Staff and Workspace
First, staff members let him almost take over the garage to work on his creation. Then, when he had put the finishing touches on a scaled-back version, staff members rearranged furniture and helped him move his K’nex design into the house so that he could show it off.
Staff members emphasized that they helped make room and create a workspace for Nick, but the work was entirely his, part of the ongoing Easterseals creative activities.
“This was all on his own. He had no help from us,” staff member Eric Leonard said. “We’ve made room for a lot of his projects.”
Nick’s Past Projects
There was the working grandfather clock, roughly 7 feet tall, Nick built from K’nex. His 160-in-one electronics project kit has helped him rig his room for sound with multiple speakers. Another ambitious project, a homebuilt CB radio with which he hoped to contact truck drivers on nearby Indiana 205, did not succeed.
Nick had a good start on the wheel before he realized he would have to reshape and shrink the project.
Instead of going to Easterseals’ Creative Learning Center in Columbia City one day, he stayed home to work on the revamped Ferris wheel as part of his Easterseals creative activities.
“I stayed home and built that,” he said. “It took me all day to build that.”
The rotating wheel is powered by a motor, power supply and switch Nick put together.
Family Support and Inspiration
One recent weekend, his mother, Kathleen Dawson, arrived to see the Ferris wheel and pick him up for an overnight stay at her home.
“He loves any kind of museum and art,” she said. “I’ve bought him every kind of pencils and pens and markers, drawing paper, and building sets, Legos – anything to get him away from screens.”
Nick remembered his first K’nex.
“I got started at the age of 6 when my mom bought my first set of K’nex for me,” he said. “When I first got it, Mom set me down and worked with me on how to build basic things from a basic book.”
Nick’s Creativity Knows No Bounds
“With Nick, you’ll always hear him say, ‘I’m going to make the biggest, the highest, the tallest, the widest…,’ He always has these grand schemes,” Dawson said. “With building things, it’s not like you can only do one thing. He can do them however he wants. There’s no limit on his imagination.”
Nick’s next ambitious project involves a stockpile of rosary twine and craft beads as part of his ongoing Easterseals creative activities.
“I’m going to build the world’s largest keychain,” Nick said.