When she couldn’t find a special gift for her son’s 10th birthday, Deana Watson and her husband decided to make one. Their son, Max, doesn’t have full mobility and uses a wheelchair to help with his difficulty of motor skills. Any toys he’s played with independently have been switch-adapted toys, so when Deana decided to adapt a Minions fart gun into a switch-adapted toy, she realized this would help other kids. “We got it and adapted it, and he could not wait to show it to his teachers and his speech therapist. He wanted to make this fart blaster go off,” Deana says.
When Max’s speech therapist approached Deana about the toy, the conversation turned quickly from “How did you do that?” to “Do you think you could make more?” Deana was immediately on board, saying the modifications cost only a couple dollars a part. From there, they had the thought of making a Facebook page to see if it found people who also wanted an adapted toy, outside of the kids in Max’s clinic.
That first year in 2014, 100 people requested toys and about 30 volunteers came together at the speech therapy clinic. Everything has been donated from the very beginning—time, toys, everything. This year, the now nonprofit organization called MaxMods is hosting their 12th annual event, Santa’s Little Hackers. Over 2,000 requests for toys poured in this year and about 375 volunteers will come together on December 6 to adapt them. Although based in Westminster, the toys will be sent to homes across the country and even internationally.
Toys are tested at the beginning of the year, all of them donated through the group’s Amazon or Target wish list or through money donations. Some toys, like a singing stuffed animal and bubble machines, are bought in bulk and early in the year.
For Deana, the organization and event are personal because she knows how important the toys are. She and her husband have seen how impactful they are in their own lives as a doorway for their son to be able to communicate with them. “We want these types of toys to be accessible to everyone because it’s not just about playing. For our specific population, many of them, this is how they start with communication,” she explains.
Anyone interested in applying for a toy can start looking next October, when the applications are out. Those who wish to volunteer or help out can donate at any time through the website at santaslittlehackers.com or look for the event sign up on Eventbrite in early November.
