A big-hearted group of high schoolers in Rhode Island is helping disabled kids accelerate. 

As part of “Go Baby Go,” a program that provides modified, ride-on cars for young children with disabilities, the team of students from William Davies Jr. Career and Technical High School converted two Power Wheel-style kid cars into vehicles for children with mobility issues. The team transfered the accelerator up to the wheel, so children who lack movement below the waist can drive them with their hands, local news outlet NBC 10 WJAR reported. 

Not only did the innovative group of 11th and 12th graders get to learn about technology, they also got to know what it feels like to help someone in need. Through their work, they learned to empathize with what disabled kids go through, like not being able to get around on their own and experience play in the same way as other kids. 

“On days when I knew I would be working on it, I kind of woke up extra early that day and it just gave me a little bit of a pep in my step. I would give 110% because I knew it would be going to them,” Tyler Brooks, a senior who worked on the project, told the local news outlet. “For me, it’s been very good to work on a car that I know is going to help a little kid out.”

Once the cars are finished, a team of college students from nearby New England Tech, a technical university, will inspect them. Then, the cars will be donated to families with disabled children. 

“To me, it’s not about the grade,” Jayden Medeiros, one of the high schoolers, said. “I think it’s more you’re impacting somebody’s life who’s probably never going to forget that.”

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