LOUISVILLE, Ky. — This holiday season, a team of engineers from GE Appliances is making a meaningful impact on the community. The “GE Appliances Elf-gineers,” a group of mechanical and electrical engineers, has adapted over 100 toys to meet the needs of children with disabilities.
For many children with disabilities, operating toys with buttons that light up, move, or play sounds can be a challenge without help. Adapted toys, which feature special switches and modifications tailored to various abilities, allow these children to play independently. However, the high cost of customized toys puts them out of reach for many families.
The air conditioning lab at GE Appliances’ Louisville headquarters was transformed into a festive workshop. Using their technical expertise, the Elf-gineers reconfigured toys to make them more inclusive.
Stephen Budelsky, a design engineer said, “We started looking—we had electrical engineers, so we knew we had people who could do the soldering. We have mechanical engineers who we felt reasonably confident could take the toys apart and put them back together again. It was all in our department.”
“Our employees have the freedom to explore their passions at work, and the Elf-gineers’ choice to use their skills to make a difference for kids in our community is just one way our culture comes to life,” said Rocki Rockingham, chief human resources officer at GE Appliances. “This initiative reflects our core values of inclusion, innovation and community commitment. The same people designing innovative appliances are now creating inclusive play experiences for kids during the holiday season.”
The adapted toys are being given to local nonprofits and schools, including Jefferson County Public Schools, the Visually Impaired Preschool Services, and the Kids Center for Pediatric Therapies.
Natalie Lyons-Donaway, a quality engineer, addedm “GE Appliances does a great job of making sure the community feels its impact. This is such an immediate impact too. We will literally be able to hand toys to kids, and they will be able to play with them instantly. There’s nothing better than that.”
This isn’t the only time GE employees have used their skills and resources to help the community. Other projects include the Access Kit, an inclusive tactile offering for blind and low vision appliance owners, and a collaboration with Mothers’ Milk Bank Northeast that benefited milk donation tracking and measurement.