13-Year-Old’s Summer Project Becomes Life-Changing Gift for Toddler
A 13-year-old's summer project becomes a life-changing gift for a toddler. While plenty of kids spend summer counting the days until school starts again, 13-year-old Zac Waters spent roughly 300 hours building something that would give a little girl more freedom.
The Lehi, Utah, teen loves 3D printing. He also loves helping people, and he found a precious way to put the two together.
13-Year-Old Turns Summer Project Into a Gift
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“It combines my two favorite things in life: 3D printing and helping people in need,” Zac said. “It just makes sense!”
And somehow, it does. After discovering 3D printing through YouTube, Zac connected with MakeGood, a nonprofit that provides free designs for volunteers to create assistive devices for people with disabilities. His summer project became a custom pediatric wheelchair for a toddler whose family needed one.
Teen Builds Custom 3D Wheelchair for a Toddler
For hundreds of hours, Zac designed, printed, tested, and assembled the chair. He thought about the details a growing little girl would need. The footrest and headrest adjust as she grows. There is room for medical equipment, along with a detachable tray and cup holder.
And because she loves pink, Zac made sure her chair had pink accents. That detail gets me.
Young Inventor Proves Age Does Not Limit Kindness
Because somewhere between the measurements, plastic pieces, and hours spent waiting on a 3D printer, this stopped being a project. Zac was thinking about a little girl he hadn't met and what might make her smile, and you can see how much he cares just by the way he talks about it.
“[It] makes me so happy to print it and see the smiles and how happy the family is that really need the wheelchair,” he said.
There are grown adults who spend years wondering whether they have enough money, influence, or experience to make a difference, but Zac is 13, and he simply saw something he knew how to do and someone who needed it done.
His grandmother, Charlotte Waters, put it beautifully. “His age does not define his ability to make a difference. His character does,” she said.
Perhaps that is the part worth carrying with us.
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“Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to act.” Proverbs 3:27
WATCH: 13-Year-Old’s Summer Project Becomes Life-Changing Gift for Toddler
LISTEN: Facing Cancer Diagnosis, Teen Found Joy in Hospital Prom | A Football Player Met a Boy Selling Lemonade, Act of Kindness Sparked Hope
h/t: People
Featured Image Credit: YouTube/ABC4 Utah
Originally published September 14, 2026.
