TINTON FALLS – On Saturday, Dec. 10, Trinity Hall hosted nearly 70 girls for an engineering workshop that combined technology with service to community. The “Hand-A-Thon” workshop was an opportunity for the girls to build and donate 10 prosthetic hand devices for children using pieces printed on the school’s 3D printers.
Senior Holly Koerwer planned and led the event which included 15 other Trinity Hall students who served as “build leaders” for small groups of the 7th and 8th grade participants. The hand devices will be donated to e-NABLE, an online global community collaborating to make free 3D-printed prosthetic hands available to those who need them.
Four years of engineering classes are part of the graduation requirements for all Trinity Hall students. It was during Koerwer’s junior year that she experienced the many possibilities of 3D printing.
“I am very grateful to have been given the opportunity at Trinity Hall to explore my passion for technology,” said Koerwer.
“What I discovered through e-NABLE is the ability to use my passion for a greater purpose. I hoped to share this feeling and this opportunity with all the young girls who attended the Hand-A-Thon. It was a pleasure walking them through their first build and I hope this is just the first of many.”
The e-NABLE community is comprised of individuals from all over the world who are using their 3D printers to create free prosthetic hands and arms for those in need of an upper limb assistive device.
“Building a prosthetic hand device was a project Holly completed with her classmates last year in the 11th grade engineering class,” said Kali Lambrou, STEM teacher at Trinity Hall. “It was a new project idea that was risky because of its complex nature. The result of this project was that Holly fell in love with 3D printing and prosthetic devices. I am proud to be part of the culmination of this passion, where Holly was able to make a real contribution to society.”
