Tennessee Tech Students Build Christmas Gift For Family In Need

Four Tennessee Tech Students used their skills to create a Christmas gift for an autistic child who lost everything in the March Tornado.

They are mechanical engineering students who spent the semester building a sensory swing. The mother, Lorren Robertson said 2020 was the roughest year of her life, and this gift for her child was the perfect way to end the year.

“It was awesome and that’s I think, the greatest thing for a parent is just to see something that their child needs and just so happy,” Robertson said. “You can see when he got in the swing, super relaxed and it was perfect. I mean, everything about it was exactly what he needed.”

Robertson said her child lost all of their therapeutics when their home was destroyed in the tornado. However, mechanical engineering student Emily Carroll got to visit the families new home to install the swing and see the child’s reaction.

“To see his face light up as soon as he walked in and saw that swing and got inside and fell in love with it,” Carroll said. “That was very, very rewarding. So, I was very excited to see he was going to put it to use.”

The students even brought other gifts to the family for Christmas. Mechanical engineering major Lexie Carrier said the effort the students put into the sensory swing paid off, when they got to see the family their efforts were for.

“It was very rewarding to see even his mom happy about it and also him being able to play in it,” Carrier said. “I knew I would be affected a little bit and I would be very happy to see it, but not nearly as much as I have been.”

Gabriel DaSilva and John Wagner were also part of the team who spent time building and installing this sensory swing. Lorren Robertson is a Cookeville High School and Tennessee Tech graduate.