January 2016 Archives

Sometimes the things we do can expand out in ways never imagined. In this case, a video about a project we worked on lead us to a brave young man that is fighting a difficult battle everyday.

After posting the videos and stories about our Star Wars BB8 3D Printing project, our President(Todd Reese) was contacted with a special request. Our video about the creation of the prototype was shared with a courageous young man named Gavin and he was thrilled that we worked on the BB8 project, as he is a huge Star Wars fan. Sadly, he has been very ill recently and didn’t get to see the new movie. In some small way watching our video helped perk him up a bit. He has a disease called Mitochondrial Disease which is now causing him to have a variety of side effects and other illnesses. The request was; if they were to send us a mini BB8 robot, would the Realize team sign it for him. Of course we were thrilled that, in some small way, we could make Gavin smile and made a plan to do as much as we could.

Gavin watching the Realize BB8 video.

We decided to 3D Print him an X-wing fighter, light saber & included some other goodies too.

The goods

Another local business owner found out about this story and was kind enough to contact us and include some of her products customized just for Gavin. The owner of Sweet Home Cupcakes, Nazarine Terstegge, donated BB8 cake pops and decorated some pretzel logs to look like light sabers for him. Thanks for your kindness!

Nazerine from Sweet Home Cupcakes.

The best part.

Here is a description about the disease from Gavin’s grandmother.

“When Gavin was diagnosed, it was rare. The more research they do on it, the more they connect it with other auto immune, and genetic diseases. Gavin’s started with tremors that affected his whole body. He has several kinds of seizures, sometimes several a day. It has affected his brain and his speech. His thought process is very slow. One of the main things that has affected Gavin, is he has no energy. He is in a wheelchair. The chair isn’t needed in the house. He has been in Hospice care for 2 years. Something as simple as the flu can kill him. He’s a fighter, and is a very brave little guy.”

To learn more about this disease and how you can help:

Gavin’s Facebook page & More information on the disease

We wish Gavin many more days filled with smiles and joy. May the force be with you Gavin.