Every year, hosts a volunteer event for incoming law students at the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University. This year, the corporate law firm tried something a little different, partnering with Makers Making Change to hold a build event, with the adapted toys going to children with disabilities at the IWK Children鈥檚 Hospital.
The law students and McInnes Cooper members 鈥 many of whom have never soldered before 鈥 worked together to make 35 adaptive switches for use with adapted frog and unicorn Bubble Blowers.
鈥淚t was gratifying in so many ways,鈥 says Andrea Hewitt, & Engagement Advisor at McInnes Cooper. 鈥淚t was the satisfaction of having created something in a short period of time; challenging yourself to do something you鈥檝e never done before, all in support of a marginalized community. It was a great experience; I can鈥檛 say enough about it. It was so easy, so enjoyable, and so gratifying.
鈥淭hrough our Collective Social Responsibility program, we do a lot of volunteer work [in] some core areas of focus. One of them is youth, and another is diversity, equity, and inclusion, so it was a really great way to marry those values and do something tangible for a community that is disadvantaged and marginalized in so many ways.鈥
For McInnes Cooper, the build event was a great way to make an impact in the community and engage with incoming law students.
鈥淚t鈥檚 always been really challenging to find organizations that have the capacity to host a large group of volunteers,鈥 Hewitt says. 鈥淏ecause you have a program and a system in place, it was so easy for your team to just come and set everything up. From a partner鈥檚 perspective, it was seamless and just a dream.鈥
All of the toys and switches from the build event were donated to the IWK Children’s Hospital. (Emily and Victoria from IWK pictured below receiving the devices).
Want to take part in or host a build event of your own? You can find an in your area, or and we would love to help your organization to host an event and adapt toys for children with disabilities.
This post originally appeared on the聽听飞别产蝉颈迟别.