![\"SOLIDWORKS](\"https:\/\/blog-assets.solidworks.com\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/12\/benandbike.png\")
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Ben and his current costume design<\/strong><\/small><\/p>\n Rev up your engines, folks, the SOLIDWORKS Magic Wheelchair<\/a> Build Team is back at it again! SOLIDWORKS employees are putting the rubber to the road and building a new, fantastically epic costume for an amazing kiddo: Ben!<\/p>\n Ben is one spunky 9-year-old! Ben was born with a condition called lissencephaly, also known as smooth brain, a rare brain disorder that impairs his cognitive ability and mobility. Ben has grown into a sweet, excitable boy who’s curious about everything, especially trucks, cars, and, most of all, motorcycles!<\/p>\n Ben comes from a motorcycle family. Before he was born, his uncle bought him an\u00a0Indian Motorcycle<\/a>\u00a0so they could ride together. Because of Ben’s condition, he will not have the ability to drive a vehicle or motorcycle, so his uncle is in the process of building him a sidecar. When Ben\u2019s caretaker, Amanda, discovered Magic Wheelchair, she also found a way for uncle and nephew to ride together after all!<\/p>\n Amanda (left), Ben, and Amanda\u2019s friend meeting Chinloo and the build team<\/strong><\/small><\/p>\n SOLIDWORKS met with Ben and Amanda in September. Amanda\u2019s mother ran a daycare and she started taking care of Ben when he was three months old. After discovering that Ben needed special care, Amanda\u2019s mother became a dedicated, family specific caretaker for Ben, and Amanda grew up taking care of him. Now that Amanda is in college, she helps take care of Ben on weekends, going on trips to museums and parks with friends. Members of the SOLIDWORKS build team met the Amanda, Ben, Amanda\u2019s mother, and a friend at Amanda\u2019s house in Western Massachusetts.<\/p>\n While SOLIDWORKS User Experience Design Director Chinloo Lama chatted with Amanda and Ben, Product Definition Senior Manager Annie Cheung and Product Definition Director Sal Lama examined Ben\u2019s wheelchair. Ben doesn\u2019t use his wheelchair all the time\u2014he can crawl on his own and as long as someone is holding him by the armpits, he can stand and walk. Amanda and her friends often take him to museums and parks and help him walk around. \u00a0Most of his mobility is in his upper body, so when he\u2019s outside he uses his wheelchair to get around. While he can move the wheels on his own, Ben is liable to streak off and investigate something that excites his curiosity, so Amanda pushes and maneuvers him while he\u2019s in his wheelchair.<\/p>\n Ben\u2019s costume inspiration. Left: Akira bike. Middle: Tron light cycle. Right: an Indian Motorcycle<\/strong><\/small><\/p>\n Chinloo used her iPad and pulled up pictures of different motorcycles, both real and from movies and video games, to get an idea of what designs Ben liked. While Ben isn\u2019t totally verbal, he can understand what people around him are saying, and he swiped through the pictures like a pro. He was most excited about images of the motorcycle from Akira <\/em>and the lights on the light cycle from Tron.<\/em> Once he saw an Indian motorcycle, like the kind his uncle has, he grew very excited\u2014they\u2019re his favorite, after all! So the team decided his costume will be an original design, a mash up of the Akira bike, the Tron bike, with an Indian Motorcycle-inspired fork and handlebars. There will be lights, sounds, and buttons galore for Ben to play with while he cruises along in his own motorcycle.<\/p>\n We\u2019ll have more updates on the build\u2019s progress, including a clash of CAD models and details about the costume\u2019s reveal. Amanda and Ben\u2019s family wants this costume reveal to be a surprise for both Ben and his uncle, and SOLIDWORKS is determined to deliver!<\/p>\n Ben giving Sal a high-five<\/strong><\/small><\/p>\n Help support Magic Wheelchair and amazing kiddos like Ben!<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n SOLIDWORKS is working hard to make Ben the most incredible costume ever and help the non-profit Magic Wheelchair achieve its goal of providing kids in wheelchairs with epic costumes. SOLIDWORKS is funding Ben\u2019s costume build in its entirety, but we invite all our readers to support Magic Wheelchair in Ben\u2019s name! If you visit his classy.org page<\/a>, you can donate directly to Magic Wheelchair and help support them and all the lives they touch with their great work. Stay tuned for more updates on this exciting build and get your engines revved for more motorcycle madness!<\/p>\n SOLIDWORKS is partnering with the Magic Wheelchair<\/a>\u00a0to create an over-the-top costume for a child in a wheelchair. According to their mission statement, \u201cMagic Wheelchair builds epic costumes for kiddos in wheelchairs \u2014\u00a0 at no cost to families.\u201d\u00a0Motorcycle Madness is an ongoing series dedicated to updating our readers on the current project\u2019s progress.<\/em><\/p>\n Read about our previous build,\u00a0Keep on (Monster) Truckin’<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>with Jonah here.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"Ben](\"https:\/\/blog-assets.solidworks.com\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/12\/358a0091.cr2_.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Akira,](\"https:\/\/blog-assets.solidworks.com\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/12\/screenshot202018-10-262015.54.52.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"Ben](\"https:\/\/blog-assets.solidworks.com\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/12\/358a0092.jpg\")
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