Blow Boats is a boat racing game / zen garden for kids with Cerebral Palsy. It is engineered to be easy for kids with disabilities to use and to have a relaxing effect on the kids when not in use.

Blow Boats is a game that was custom made for a child, who loved boats, at McMains Developmental Center in Baton Rouge. The Project started out as just a boat racing game but it eventually evolved into a dual-purpose game installment that doubles as a zen garden for the children.

The creation of our project was a journey and was very bumpy almost the whole way through. We equated our teamwork to a failing marital couple. Although this wasn’t far from the truth, the challenges forced us to rethink our opinions and work together to overcome them. When we started to work together and listen to each other’s ideas, we began to work faster and overcome more problems.

We decided to center the project around metal working, so that it could be a permanent installation. We were able to visit a local metal fabrication company, River City Metal Fabricators, to build this portion of our project and learn about the metal fabrication process. At this company we learned about future job opportunities and what small local businesses struggle with.

Because there are not many games available to children with cerebral palsy that can accomodate more than one child, we created this multiplayer boat racing game. We hope that our project impacts the lives of these kids by allowing them to play with each other and grow through interactions made because of our project.