It’s time to rev our engines for 2022!  Thanks to you, we hit our 2021 target, giving 37 kids the #Power2Play.   This year, let’s get 50 more kids with movement limitations racing!

Give Kids the Gift of Movement

Geeks for Kids is an initiative of LEARN, a small, all-volunteer nonprofit with a big dream – to give kids with mobility challenges the #Power2Play. With the help of volunteers and donors like you, we build mini-race cars for kids who otherwise can’t get around on their own. Join us in the campaign to get these kids racing!

Give a Kid Like Parker a Hot Rod!

There are 500,000 American kids under the age of 5 with movement limitations - kids like Parker, shown at top right. When Parker's mom applied for a car for her she wrote, "Parker loves to explore, but due to her limited mobility it is nearly impossible.  [Parker was born with most of the joints in her upper body fused together so that they will not bend.]  She has a gait trainer, but she tires easily when using it.... She tried a power chair with a joystick just for fun when she was getting fitted for her walker, and the excitement in her face was everything.... Being able to race around and play will make such a difference!"

We built a car for Parker last year, and now she is now zipping around her yard and neighborhood. Let’s give all kids with movement limitations the same gift.

Kids Are Waiting Right Now

96,000 Missouri and Kansas kids have disabilities, according to a 2012 study from Child Trends. Together, we can give those with movement limitations the #Power2Play! Local healthcare agencies are referring kids to us every day. Join the campaign to get those kids racing.

Why $70,349?

It will cost $210,000 to build 50 cars and to develop the new tech we are hoping to release this spring.  We have raised $89,651 so far, and we hope to win sponsorships for another $50,000.  So, we need to raise an additional $70,349 to get our kids racing.  

Get Involved

It takes a village – maybe even a small city – to fulfill our mission to build as many customized, electric cars for kids with mobility limitations as we can. We are calling on engineers, software developers, roboticists, mechanics, physical therapists,, seamstresses, corporate sponsors, individual donors and other good-hearted souls to rise to the challenge. To build great cars that empower lots of little kids, we need you!

There are so many ways to get involved in Geeks for Kids. You can:

• Build a Car
• Recruit Corporate Sponsors
• Join the Design & Planning Team
• Or, Refer a Kid Who Would Benefit from a Car

To learn more about Geeks for Kids and the cars we are building, visit our Geeks for Kids subsite. 

Join the Race!

Get in the driver’s seat! Help make Geeks for Kids an even bigger success by sharing this fundraiser and by spreading the news on social media. Use our hashtags to help us build awareness: #GeeksForKids and #Power2Play.

100% of your donations goes straight to getting kids with movement limitations racing.  Each car is a gift, given FREE to a child.

Geeks For Kids is a LEARN Science & Math Club program. LEARN Science & Math Club  is a non-profit that has been providing kids with rich, hands-on STEM experiences since 2004.

Last Year's Stats

In the 2021 Geeks for Kids Build season, our team of Super Geeks accomplished a lot in the midst of a pandemic.  Over the course of 11 months, our all-volunteer management team of 15 people combined with the power of 106 volunteers, 14 corporate sponsors and dozens of individual donors like you:

• Put in:
  • 216 strategy, design, build and delivery sessions
  • Over 10,700 labor hours
• Raised over $76,000
• Plus, our Design Team created or re-designed dozens of new pieces of hardware, electronics and software
• Our 8 Invent for Good teams created prototypes for:
  
  • Several new action challenges (including one amazing Ping Pong ball-shooting Gatling gun - oh, my!)
  • A new car seat
  • A new head support
  • A new Sip & Puff drive system
• And, most importantly, they gave all of 37 kids the #Power2Play - to be kids.

This Year's Plan

We are happy to report that the 2022 Geeks for Kids build season is already off to a roaring start. We have built 19 cars so far; considering that we began building in January until this year, completing so many cars by early December is a new record! And, our Super Geeks have so many exciting new things under development. They are designing;

• Small, agile cars for Children's Mercy and Ability KC to use in their clinics
• An eye-gaze-directed drive system for kids who have no control over their bodies
• A new head-movement-directed drive system for kids who can only move their heads
• And, so much more!

We are on track to meet our goal of getting 50 more kids with movement limitations racing.  Together, we can turbocharge 2022 and deliver more cars to more kids than ever before!

The Cost

Our cars cost $2,175 on average to build. The kids and their families, however, pay nothing.  We need your help to make sure every kid who applies for a car gets one! The more money we raise, the more cars we can build. Together, we can get kids with movement limitations racing! Join the campaign today.

Of course, every dollar helps! We bundle together small donations to build big dreams. As the list above shows, we can do a lot with donations of just about any size.

Twenty-one-month-old Thain is waiting to zoom around in his new hot rod.  (He can't race around on his own easily because the right side of his body does not move well.)  Let's get him racing!