2010 Sustainability Report - Cummins.com

Courage Center
Minneapolis, Minn.
Significant partnerships
Courage Center
dispenses hope
Editor’s note: Cummins is engaged in a number
of significant partnerships on the key topics
of education, the environment and social
responsibility/improving the human condition.
As an engineer at Cummins Power Generation in
Fridley, Minn., Mark Weber works on quality and
warranty issues.
But when he’s at the Courage Center, he’s an
engineering magician, transforming toys and
appliances so that disabled children and adults
can use them with a slight move of the hand or
a blink of an eye.
Weber is among five current and retired
Cummins engineers who volunteer their time
and engineering skills at the Courage Center,
a rehabilitation facility based in Minneapolis for
people with disabilities. They are part of a larger
Cummins group that has devoted time and energy
into building a strong partnership with the center.
The partnership was launched in 2005 with
several Every Employee, Every Community (EEEC)
projects. In 2006, engineers like Weber got
involved at the center’s Assistive Technology Lab
where they use their engineering skills to redesign
common tools or toys so they can be used by
the disabled.
Today, that partnership is stronger than ever.
“What we’ve really been able to do at the Courage
Center is to build on the work of our volunteer
engineers,” said Sue Piva, the Power Gen Global
Community Service Leader.
The relationship between the Courage Center
and Fridley’s Community Involvement Team (CIT)
is two-way collaboration that serves as a
model for how Cummins CITs interact with their
community partners. It has evolved from the reengineering
work to involvement in other projects
including a fall prevention program for the frail
and elderly, a playground accessibility review,
and a robotics day camp.
The Fridley CIT has provided funding for projects
such as a program for vocational services and
work readiness, a shop services marketability study,
equipment for the Assistive Technology Lab, and a
“Closing the Gap” conference for therapists.
But there is nothing quite like the work done
week after week at the center by Weber and
his colleagues – Mike Miller, Mike Scheuerell,
Peter Vancalligan and John Heinz, now retired.
They take seemingly simple devices that ablebodied
people take for granted and adapt them
for Courage Center clients, in many cases
transforming the quality of their lives. Some
examples of their work include:
They have adapted Bluetooth headsets so
people who do not have the use of their hands
and arms can control the devices with a slight
head movement.
They have modified doorbells and reworked bed
controls for patients with ALS, or amyotrophic
lateral sclerosis, so they can operate them with
minimal effort.
They organize group events every Christmas to
modify toys so that children with disabilities
can use them just like able-bodied children.
82 Cummins Inc. Sustainability Report 2010