Based out of Portage County, a local organization is making a tangible difference and connecting people across the world, using 3D printing technology to create prosthetic hands for those who need them.
Hands of Gratitude, an organization started by Sugar Bush Knolls resident and Kent native Matt Campana, is a program that not only provides access to prosthetics, but offers people a chance to connect with international recipients who are living with limb loss or limb difference.
The mission of Hands of Gratitude is to offer an interactive program for individuals and teams to assemble 3D-printed prosthetic hands. People learn about the origin of Hands of Gratitude, as well as plans for the future, and then follow assembly instructions to create prosthetic hands.
The devices are then distributed to recipients across the globe. These hands can grasp and hold objects and offer recipients an intuitive and muscle-driven prosthetic that requires no surgery and can be used instantly.
As people are split into small groups and given kits that include not only all the 3D-printed pieces and components to build a hand, they are also given a printed card that shares a photo and the backstory of each recipient.
While groups build their 3D-printed hand, they are also able to decorate and write notes to the recipients.
While prosthetics have certainly advanced over the years, featuring sleeker designs and different alloys and metals, the World Health Organization has estimated that over 30 million are in need of prosthetic or orthotic devices. But limited access to prosthetics, as well as the cost, are ongoing barriers and issues worldwide.
Created eight years ago, Hands of Gratitude has now donated over 5,000 hands to people all over the world and has worked with not only schools like Kent State University, where Campana recently presented for International Fulbright Pre-Academic scholars, but corporations like Google, FedEx, Starbucks, Deloitte, the Cleveland Clinic and many others.
But how did this all come to be?
In 2007, Campana took his background in the corporate retreat business to create a consulting agency, Corporate Motivation. It was created to provide a platform for businesses to give back through meetings, events and retreats. Through Corporate Motivation, Campana worked with Habitat for Humanity International and did things like build a fourplex for wounded veterans in San Diego.
But the economic crash of 2008 found businesses retreating in a different way, which lasted several years. When retreats returned, there was a larger focus on corporate social responsibility, which sparked the idea for Hands of Gratitude.
“It started with me wanting to have a medical-based give-back activity,” said Campana, who then stumbled upon a YouTube video of a 3D printed hand.
He was fascinated and reached out to the person in the footage.
And that’s when, eight years ago, Hands of Gratitude began, with Campana printing, building and shipping hands to regions that could use them.
“At the beginning, we didn’t have these contacts on the ground, so we were just shipping stuff and hoping it got where it might be needed. But then we organically grew these relationships with people,” Campana said. “And then Google called. Well, actually, Survey Monkey called first. And then Veritas, where we did a 1,500-person program. From there, Silicon Valley caught word.”
And it was a 2018 trip to Honduras that proved to be a pivotal point for Hands of Gratitude.
“That’s when everything got real,” Campana said. “That was just a transformational trip, that first one. I learned so much about the need and the people. They’re so grateful and friendly and kind; it’s just amazing.”
Hands of Gratitude partnered with Guala in Honduras, which is a group of electrical engineers, physical therapists and teachers that canvas all of Central America in search of recipients in need of prosthetic devices.
“Sadly there’s no shortage of recipients. Electrical accidents are the number one cause for limb loss in Central America,” Campana said.
They provided a dozen hands to recipients during that first trip to Honduras and left 20 more that were then donated to other recipients. Now Hands of Gratitude is getting involved with even more organizations, as Campana recently partnered with The Chosen organization in Tanzania, who initially reached out with 200 recipients.
“Now it’s up to over 700 recipients that need prosthetics from lower arm, to upper arm, legs, everything,” Campana said. “So that’s going to be a multi-year effort, for sure.”
I was able to join Campana over several different presentations, which included a lunch with Kent’s Rotary Club, constructing 3D-printed hands at a nearby high school that has partnered with the program for its service learning classes and building a hand at an event that allowed community members to learn more about the organization and its impact.
As a child of the ’80s and ’90s, I can say that building hands is like constructing a more intricate Legos situation, with screws and high-test wire that need to be tightened to ensure each finger responds appropriately.
During a presentation and build, which typically lasts a few hours, Campana shares about Hands of Gratitude and the work it does, but also highlights issues like diabetes, birth defects and incidents with electricity or still-active land mines that account for millions of amputations and limb differences.
Campana begins and ends each presentation with a message of gratitude for the opportunity each event provides and, as the number of recipients gaining access to prosthetics grows, it seems like a lot has happened since the journey began with an idea and a YouTube video.
“It has kind of been a rocketship that has taken off and resonated with so many of our clients around the country,” Campana said. “And I think for a couple reasons. One is that it’s tangible, you know. You’re there, you’re building it, you’re touching it, and in two hours time, you’ve built a hand for someone. But I think the larger lessons, that I couldn’t have imagined, were those lessons of empathy, compassion, gratitude, hope, love — you know, all those wonderful things that just kind of bubbled to the surface at each event. So a lot of times our participants, our school kids and our corporate participants, they all really have breakthroughs at these events because everybody’s going through something.”
