This Fresno teen can’t walk. But thanks to a gift from Cal Poly students, she can race
For years, Katie Robinson has asked to join her father as he runs half-marathons. But the 17-year-old Fresno girl who was born with significant medical conditions has been stuck on the sidelines, watching him collect medals without her.
That will change in the upcoming year, thanks to Cal Poly engineering students who designed and built a custom jogger just for Katie as their senior project.
She can’t walk or stand, but Katie can now accompany her father as he pushes the jogger in the California Classic Half Marathon in Fresno come April.
“It just means everything for her,” said her father, Edward Robinson, vice principal at El Capitan Middle School in Fresno.
“She enjoys being outdoors, being active, and she is very adventurous. I know she will love running with me in her new jogger,” he said.
Katie is 100-percent wheelchair-bound after she was born with physical abnormalities involving her legs, feet and lack of muscle growth and development. Her dad searched for a commercial jogger but couldn’t find one on the market that was appropriate for her unique needs and size.
Then, he learned about Cal Poly engineering students’ senior projects while reading about Team Joseph — a group of Cal Poly students who created multiple projects to enable Joseph Cornelius of Los Osos to participate in triathlons with his father — and reached out to the university’s mechanical engineering department.
After multiple meetings to take measurements and discuss needs, the student team presented the jogger to Katie and her parents on Friday in San Luis Obispo. It was a joyous occasion.
“That is beyond what I envisioned, to be honest,” Edward Robinson told the students. “You guys are brilliant. Thank you so much.”
After Katie hugged the team members and saw her new jogging chair for the first time, she was overwhelmed with emotion and tightly hugged her mother, Laurie Robinson.
Her mom said to Katie, “It’s OK. It’s OK. It’s exciting, right?”
Her dad explained, “She only reacts like this once in a very great while, and it’s when it’s just kind of overly emotionally joyful for her.”
He lifted her into the jogger, and after Katie confirmed it was comfortable, off they went for a short test jog on campus.
“She’s been asking me for years, ‘Dad, can I run with you? Can I run with you?’ he said. “We’re going to enter races and she’s going to get her medals.”
Like many projects that come out of the College of Engineering, the jogger was designed to solve a specific problem and improve someone’s quality of life — creating a “real world” experience that demonstrates what students can accomplish.
Cal Poly engineering graduate Megan Guillermo said it’s been a pleasure.
“They have been the most supportive and welcoming family, and we are so grateful to be working with them,” she said.
The project was sponsored by Break the Barriers, a Fresno-based nonprofit that promotes inclusion in athletics.
This story was originally published December 17, 2019 at 5:00 AM.
