May We Help volunteers change lives with custom-built devices for individuals with disabilities

May We Help has been serving individuals with disabilities for the past 12 years, helping clients fulfill their passions and accomplish tasks that aren't considered necessities while also dispelling myths about impossibility.
 
“We’re changing lives on a very individual basis, but I want to see May We Help push the bar and continue to be legitimately disruptive,” says Chris Kubik, the nonprofit’s project director. "There are currently more organizations doing more good than ever, but at the same exact time, there are still massive mountains in the disability scene that make life financially, socially, and emotionally an endless uphill struggle.”

But according to Kubik nothing should be assumed and nothing should be considered outside the realm of possibility.
 
The organization assists clients by tapping into its network of volunteers to create custom-made assistance devices — everything from an adjustable harmonica holder mounted on a wheelchair so clients like Justin can switch harmonicas easily and keep up with the other members of his blues band — to physical therapy scooters.
 
“One I thought was pretty amazing we did this last year was Logan’s walker,” Kubik says. "He’s a young boy adopted from Ukraine, and he was born missing some limbs — not entirely — but with limb differences, so he had two different leg prostheses, one longer than the other, and he was learning to walk for the first time."
 
May We Help worked with Logan’s physical therapist so volunteers working on Logan’s design would have a contact point, because the goal, Kubik says, is to always work do something that’s a net positive.
 
“We realized that Logan was in a strange in-between place — rolling around on the ground successfully and getting where he needed to be, but crawling — and that was the entirety of his mobility and what he was, what he knew,” Kubik says. “And it was a constant moving target, because his parents were determined to push Logan to the limits of his ability, and he was able to dish it right back and was progressing.”
 
So May We Help volunteers started by taking a donated reverse-K walker and created an area Kubik says looked like arm rests but was actually a place for Logan to hang his shoulders. Volunteers cut holes so he could steer and balance with his residual limbs, which allowed for his posture to start becoming more erect.
 
“We then moved to a socket approach where we were using end caps from PVC fittings — putting them in there like sockets — and he’d steer with that,” Kubik says. “Then his posture became so good we got a phone call about three months after starting development, which was basically, ‘Hey, we don’t need the walker anymore. Logan’s walking independently.’”
 
According to Kubik, no one thought Logan could walk period.
 
“The parents usually are the first ones who don't believe, and challenge that kind of limiting diagnosis,” Kubik says. “Kids don’t know what they can’t do or what’s off limits. We’ve seen raw determination, and we get to be their hands and feet.” 

Do Good: 

•    If you or someone you know of is in need of a device from May We Help, request one here.

•    Support May We Help by donating.

•    If you have skills to offer and want to get involved, volunteer with May We Help, whose office is in Mariemont.