Niagara Children’s Centre benefits from power of plasma
While the name sounds like something right out of science fiction, plasma cars are actually anything but futuristic — and that’s the way the folks at Niagara Children’s Centre like it.
“We actually use them at the centre,” said centre CEO Oksana Fisher. “They give the kids a chance to experience movement.”
Cars are propelled by wiggling the steering wheel attached to two pivoting wheels touching the ground. The driver harnesses the natural forces of inertia, centrifugal force, gravity and friction to move the car forward or backward.
And that’s exactly what competitors were doing Friday at the Ballhockey.com Athletic Centre in St. Catharines. Teams of four negotiated their way around the indoor ball hockey rink in a quest to raise funds for the centre’s programs.
“It’s a great way to get businesses involved,” Fisher said. “It’s a great way to get more people involved.”
The races were the culmination of a month-long fundraising campaign for the centre, which provides rehabilitation and therapy programs for children and youth with physical, developmental and/or communicative disabilities. In 2017, the centre helped 3,300 children and youths through such services as speech language pathology, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and social work.
Heading into Friday’s event, the campaign had raised $145,000 and the races added a further $23,604 to that.