Nonprofit Spotlight: Made4Me

Made4Me

WRITTEN BY RABEKAH HENDERSON | PHOTOGRAPHED BY JONATHAN FREDIN

FOR JOHNNA ELSTOB and her 12-year-old son Ryan, COVID-19 was especially difficult. Ryan, who has a genetic disorder which causes multiple disabilities, had just received a series of botox treatments that required a rigorous stretching routine for his foot and four visits to physical therapy a week. Aside from these visits to the physical therapist, Ryan was stuck in their Raleigh home most of the time, and he was limited in what he could do.

When Ryan’s physical therapist recommended Made4Me, a Triangle nonprofit that creates adaptive design furniture — that is, furniture that fits a child’s specific need — Elstob soon realized the potential of how the nonprofit could help Ryan.

She reached out over email, and the nonprofit responded almost immediately.

Elstob met with the Made4Me team over Zoom and brainstormed a piece for Ryan that would help him stretch his foot and have some fun too. They landed on a rocking shark, a rocking-horse-like item that features a shark rather than a horse to sit upon. When Ryan would rock on it, his foot would be placed in a way so that it was stretched with the back-and-forth movement.

“With my son, everything we apply to either takes forever, doesn’t happen, or is too expensive. But this process was the easiest thing ever,” said Elstob.

Made4Me got its start in 2016, when Jim McAgy approached his neighbor John Mainey with an idea. McAgy had heard of a nonprofit in New York City called the Adaptive Design Association, which creates adaptive design pieces for families with children with special needs. He wanted to do the same thing in the Triangle.

McAgy had a background in woodworking and Mainey had worked in operations, so their talents fit well with this goal. The duo soon partnered with three other men and got to work launching Made4Me in March 2017. “Made4Me’s mission is to help improve the lives of people with special needs and those that care for them. We do that by creating custom items for them and providing them at no cost to their families,” said Mainey. More than four years later, they’re certainly living out that mission. In that time, Made4Me has served 60 families with approximately 250 adaptive design pieces.

John Mainey is the executive director and co-founder of Made4Me, a local nonprofit that builds adaptive design furniture for children. Ryan Elstob rocks on his specially made shark, which helps him stretch his feet.

A child's measurements are taken to ensure custom-fit furniture.

Volunteers Jeff Rolke and Doug Nelson build a chair. Industrial corrugated cardboard is strong and lightweight, making it a perfect construction material.

Volunteer Joe Griffin works on a custom-made cardboard creation at Made4Me.

These custom pieces derive their name from their ability to adapt to a client’s specific need, such as a chair that can hold feeding tubes or a steps to allow a client to independently access a sink or table. Adaptive design furniture is often custom-made to the individual specifications and measurements of the client. Made4Me builds their furniture so that it can adapt to the child as they grow over time.

“When we build a piece like a chair for a client, we take their [current] measurements and we construct the chair not only for how the child is today, but we adapt it so that as that child grows, the chair will grow with them,” said Mainey.

To create these one-of-a-kind pieces, Made4Me starts by meeting with the client, their family and their therapist to determine what kind of challenges the client is facing and what their needs are. They then take 20 different measurements of the child and create a concept piece that addresses those challenges.

These pieces “run the gamut,” said Mainey. “If you can dream it, we can build it.”

Made4Me’s pieces are not built of wood, plastic or metal — instead, they use cardboard. More specifically, industrial corrugated cardboard that is three layers thick and incredibly strong while still being relatively light. These qualities make cardboard the perfect choice for these items, as its heavy-duty-but-lightweight nature means that the adaptive furniture is easy to transport and move around.

Elstob loved how her son’s rocking shark turned out, and she was exceptionally pleased with the design and build process.

In one of the fittings, the Made4Me team realized Ryan had an augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) device — a tablet that helps someone with a speech or language impairment communicate. The designers quickly added a holder for the device on his shark, so Ryan could rock, relax and communicate all at the same time.

“It was this really fabulous thing that didn’t exist anywhere else,” Elstob said. Working with Made4Me was “one of the first bright and happy spots we’ve had through all of this — everything was so easy and comfortable.”

Much of what Made4Me does If you’re interested in an adaptive design piece for wouldn't be possible without its committed team of innovation specialists — what yourself or a loved one, Made4Me calls their gifted volunteers who head to Made4Me.org and create the pieces at their workshop. To beclick ‘Design Yours Now’ to come involved, whether by volunteering or get the process started. donating money, visit the nonprofit’s website at Made4Me.org. t