Much like his hero Albert Einstein, Chandler Macocha used his intelligence and imagination to make a helpful contribution to his fellow man.
The Oxford Middle School eighth-grader was recognized for his contribution Sept. 22 in Chicago as one of two national winners in the 2003 Sears Craftsman/National Science Teachers Association Young Inventors Awards Program.
Macocha’s winning invention – dubbed the “Wheelchair Backpack Holder” – enables a wheelchair’s backpack to conveniently swivel forward via a hand-operated lever.
The budding boy genius’s ingenuity earned him a $10,000 U.S. Savings Bond as the national winner in the sixth-through-eighth-grade category.
Macocha was very humble about his award.
“I thought I had a chance, just like everybody else had a chance,” he said. “But I didn’t really think I’d win.”
More than 8,000 students nationwide in grades two through eight entered this year’s young inventor’s competition. That number was eventually whittled down to 12 national finalists, of which Macocha was one.
Despite the stiff competition, Chandler’s mother, Lisa Macocha, said many of the teachers at the awards ceremony indicated “they thought (his invention) was going to win hands down.”
Of her son’s victory, Lisa said, “I was really impressed. I was really happy.”
Macocha traveled to the national awards ceremony in Chicago last week, where he received his prize from home improvement guru and television personality Bob Vila.
Of the winners, Vila said they “demonstrated tremendous ingenuity and amazing problem-solving skills – inventing tools that do useful work yet are simple machines, operated without electricity or a motor.”
Macocha got the chance to personally demonstrate his invention for Vila.
“It didn’t seem like he was a famous person because he was just wandering around like everybody else,” he said of meeting Vila. “It was pretty cool.”
Vila said Macocha’s invention was a “great idea,” “very innovative” and “very different.”
“He was very interested in it,” Lisa said.
The young inventor said he got the idea for his winning creation after questioning a wheelchair-bound former neighbor, Jo Ann Thomas, about the problems she encounters on a daily basis. Thomas told Macocha that retrieving items from her backpack was a “big problem” because it’s hard for her to reach behind her wheelchair.
Two months later, the “Wheelchair Backpack Holder” was born.
“I thought it was really neat that Chandler could invent something that could actually help someone in the future,” Lisa said.
Macocha said he plans to enter the 2004 Craftsman/NSTA Young Inventors Awards Program because as an eighth-grader this will be his last opportunity to participate.
However next year, in addition to competing with thousands of students from around the country, Macocha will face his own siblings.
Macocha’s brother Jordan, a sixth-grader, and sister Sierra, a fourth-grader at Leonard Elementary.
“They both want to try their hand at it,” Lisa said. “(Sierra) was telling Bob Vila I’m going to be the next one. I’m going to be here next year. She’s really pumped up about it.”
“We’ll probably work together,” Macocha said. “I’ll give them some advice.”