Girl Scouts In Iowa Invent Prosthetic Hand Device For Child, Earn Pending Patent
Part of the Girl Scout promise is "to help people at all times," and one troop in Ames, Iowa exemplifies that motto in a big way.
Six Girl Scouts, who hold their weekly meetings in the branches of a fir tree, created a prosthetic hand device to help a young girl in Georgia who was born without fingers on her right hand, ABC reports.
The girls, who call themselves The Flying Monkeys, won $20,000 in the worldwide FIRST LEGO League science and engineering challenge. The money was put toward a provisional patent for their invention, the BOB-1, and also to create a slightly improved version called BOB-1.2.
One of the Scouts Kate Murray tells ABC what the accomplishment means to her:
"It's a really big deal to be getting a patent. Almost no one at our age has one and it's very special. It means our invention is really worth it."
The girls worked on the project from the fall of 2010 to the spring of 2011, meeting with prosthetics manufacturers and doctors. Their final product was a prosthetic hand device made of plastic, a grip to hold a writing utensil and Velcro.
Danielle's mother, Dale Fairchild, tells ABC that her daughter, who is not a candidate for prosthesis, was ecstatic about the device:
"When Danielle first got the BOB and we opened it up, her eyes lit up and she said, 'Wow, I can write with my other hand!'"
WATCH:
Support The Flying Monkeys in Iowa and other Girl Scout troops through the Impact links below:
Loading comments… 
First Posted: 06/17/11 08:38 PM ET Updated: 08/17/11 06:12 AM ET