Marianjoy launches GoBabyGo chapter

WHEATON - With the help of over 50 volunteers from the community and Marianjoy associates, Marianjoy Rehabilitation Hospital will launch its own chapter of GoBabyGo at a workshop today at the hospital's Wheaton campus.

GoBabyGo, a program founded by researcher Cole Galloway at the University of Delaware, modifies battery-powered toy cars for children with disabilities to teach them about their own independent mobility and improve their social development. Since 2006, Galloway and his team have helped launch over 30 GoBabyGo chapters in the United States, Poland and Isreal.

Through support from community sponsors, individual donors and volunteers, the Marianjoy Foundation will provide the modified cars to 12 families of children with spina bifida, cerebral palsy and other congenital disorders.

"GoBabyGo has the potential to create watershed moments for these children," said Kathrina Prostka, a Marianjoy therapist in the Wheelchair and Positioning Center. "If a child can learn to move by pressing a switch on the car, then that's the first step toward a power wheelchair for many children."

Ben Leo, Chief of Staff for the GoBabyGo Program at the University of Delaware, says the program is about a lot more than a fun activity for kids.

"The objective of GoBabyGo is to engage the community with pediatric technology," Leo said. We want to make Marianjoy a hub for pediatric innovation."

Leo will be on hand to assist the volunteers with the inaugural workshop. In launching its chapter of GoBabyGo, Marianjoy becomes the only chapter in Chicago's western suburbs and hopes to hold an annual build workshop. Prostka and therapists in the pediatric department also aim to modify cars for children throughout the year.

The first workshop will be held at 10:30 a.m. in the OLA Auditorium on the Marianjoy Wheaton campus, beginning with a 1-hour presentation, lunch and an afternoon build workshop.

Learn more, and watch a video of a GoBabyGo workshop, at www.MarianjoyFoundation.org.