Alyssa’s New Swing  

We were recently contacted with a special request to design a custom support for a young girl to use on her schoolyard swing. Though we have for years created custom supports we’ve never made one specifically to use on a swing.

The originator and coordinator of this project was Rick Hayden, RTS of Home Health Supply, Inc. (HHS) located in Palm Springs, CA. HHS is a DME/Rehab company owned by Syd Gubin, ATP (an Executive Board Chair of the Professional Standards Board of RESNA). He also owns a satellite office in Loma Linda, CA referred to as The Seating Center.

Rick Hayden first met Alyssa in 2003 through … the Physical Education Coordinator, Jay and worked in coordination with Alyssa’s aid, … and various others to bring this project to fruition.

We first met Alyssa at her school in the vineyard region of Temecula, CA, a 90-minute drive from our offices. At that meeting a body mold was taken of Alyssa’s profile using a modified seating simulator from Otto Bock. Later the mold was fine-tuned, digitized then e-mailed to Minnesota where it was robotically carved by a five-axis CNC router. The raw carving was then shipped to the CUSHMAKER.com factory in Santa Fe Springs where it was trimmed to size, laminated to a plywood base and detailed to Alyssa’s requirements and specifications.

As with any custom seating system or custom support system, we scheduled a trial fitting before Alyssa’s Swing was completed. During the trial, notes were taken on further adjustments and modifications that were necessary to improve the quality of the finished product. The improvements included adding a foam layer around the perimeter edge of the plywood base to cushion any accidental collisions with other children who might suddenly dart in front of the swing. Also, two plastic rims were added to the underside of the seat to act as registers to ensure that the molded seat would not accidentally disengage from the swing.

Initially, we thought that Alyssa would require the use of arm cuffs to assist her in creating the swing motion against the chains but during the trial that idea was drop after Alyssa proved herself quite capable of reaching the chains and creating her own swing motion.

Alyssa’s Swing was designed with an integrated tubular frame using serrated joints manufactured by Otto Bock. The tubular frame not only adds structural integrity to the whole system but will also allow the seat and back to be extended for growth as Alyssa matures. The serrated joints also allow the seat-to-back angle to be changed if necessary.

We met with Alyssa’s parents, Richard and Luz at the delivery. They expressed numerous thanks to everyone involved in thinking of, and creating their daughter’s custom swing support. The result was something they never imagined was possible.

Alyssa is actually a quite remarkable young lady. According to her parents she exhibits a strong determination both in the classroom and in all other aspects of her life. Her desire to swing along with her schoolmates is just another example of her view of life without limitations.

The joy in everyone’s face, as they watched Alyssa swing higher and higher, was magnetic. Expanding Alyssa’s opportunity for joy and exercise were primary goals of this project. We are proud to have played a part.