GOOD WORKS
mother, now deceased, was living in a care centre. He contacted Tetra to see if someone could build a portable bowling lane for residents in wheelchairs. A ramp was built, allowing residents to sit on either the left or right side and send small bocce balls down three metres of artificial turf towards the bowling pins. “My mother, when she was 98, could go once a week to the bowling activity at the care centre and actually have an experience like being in a bowling alley,” Mr. Monk fondly recalls. The care centre still uses the ramp five days a week. It’s the most popular recreational activity there.
GADGETS AND GIZMOS
Long-time Calgary volunteer and APEGA Life Member Bill Caswell, P.Eng., has worked on hundreds of Tetra projects over the past eight years or so. He joined the group after his brother-in-law, a Tetra volunteer in Vancouver, encouraged him to get involved. “I enjoy tinkering. Welding and automotive mechanics are lifelong hobbies of mine,” explains Mr. Caswell, a retired mechanical engineer who spent his career working in gas plants and oilfield facilities. Volunteering was an opportunity to “build some gadgets” and do some good, he says. “What we do is really quite low tech. A lot of it involves welding bits of iron together or chopping up bits of wood and making something that’s not readily available on the market,” he says. “Sometimes it doesn’t take very much to make someone’s life a little easier. Most of (the designs) are little gadgets that I can carry in one hand.” Recently he met with a woman who became a paraplegic because of the actions of a drunk driver. Her husband had put an elevator lift in the back entry of their bungalow, allowing her to go up to the main level and down into the basement. But she needed a guard built to keep her from accidentally tumbling down the stairs. Mr. Caswell made a hinged metal arm that moves back and forth and acts as a safety barrier. He’s made several drink holders, using microphone stems, electrical wire and other parts and materials. It clamps onto the side of a wheelchair. People who can’t move their hands easily, such as multiple sclerosis patients, can position a drink so it can be easily reached by moving their head. For a family whose young daughter has cerebral palsy, Mr. Caswell built an elevating bed. The little girl needed the mattress close to the floor for sleeping, but easily elevated for her personal care. A torsion rod and manual lever were built onto a frame, allowing the mattress to be raised to about 80 centimetres from the floor. Other projects Mr. Caswell has worked on include a wheelchair cell phone holder for a teen with cerebral palsy — fashioned from a coat hanger, steel rod and steel plate — and an adjustable paint palette holder for a quadriplegic who paints with her mouth. “I like trying to come up with creative ideas to solve some- body’s problem,” says Mr. Caswell. “You have to be able to do stuff with your hands and have a passion to do it.”
HOW YOU CAN HELP
Tetra Society welcomes new volunteers. If you have a mechanical aptitude and like to build things, your skills, creativity and ingenuity will be put to good use. The society asks volunteers to make a time commitment of six months for up to 12 hours a month. All out-of-pocket expenses, such as materials and mileage, are reimbursed. Corporations, too, can help Tetra fulfill its mission, by donating of resources such as tools, supplies and money. To find out how you can help, visit tetrasociety.org.
82 | PEG SPRING 2015
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