e-NABLING THE FUTURE : JON SCHULL : RIT : 3-D PRINTERS OF PROSTHETICS FOR CHILDREN

Jon Schull is a former-RIT professor and founder of the e-Nable movement.  He’s sharp and attentive; kind and compassionate; brilliant; driven; the type that doesn’t just wish the World better, but makes it so.

Below is an excerpt from the Organization’s website – EnablingTheFuture.org :

This website is dedicated to following the growth of the e-NABLE community and the “3d Mechanical Hand – Maker Movement” that was inspired by two strangers (a prop maker from the USA and a carpenter from South Africa) that came together from 10,000 miles apart – to create a prosthetic hand device for a small child in South Africa …and then gave the plans away – for free…so that those in need of the device could make them for themselves or have someone make it for them.

What originally started out as a couple of guys who created something to help one child in need…has grown into a world wide movement of tinkerers, engineers, 3D print enthusiasts, occupational therapists, university professors, designers, parents, families, artists, students, teachers and people who just want to make a difference.

They are coming together to create, innovate, re-design and give a “Helping hand” to those that need it – whether it is helping to print parts for them,  creating a completed device for them or simply helping to guide them as they build one themselves.

There are people around the Globe – 3d printing fingers and hands for children they will never meet, classes of high school students who are making hands for people in their local communities, hundreds of Scout troops working together to assemble hands for children in underserved areas around the globe,  a group of people that are risking their lives to get these devices onto people in 3rd World countries and new stories every day of parents working with their children to make a hand together.

The seed was planted and the Tree is branching out, growing and becoming more beautiful than ever imagined!

Come watch it grow with us!

Below are images gathered from an editorial assignment that I shot recently for POST Magazine in my son’s hometown of Rochester, NY.