Teen hero: Ashley “engineered” a way to help a veteran live life to the fullest!

After hearing that former Marine Kendall Bane lost his leg in Afghanistan, high-school student Ashley Kimbel decided to use her passion for engineering to design an innovative, lightweight prosthetic that can help him experience life to the fullest!

There’s a new project I think you’d be interested in working on,” Christopher Faust, the engineering teacher at Grissom High School in Huntsville, Alabama, told 17-year-old senior Ashley Kimbel. Her excitement grew as Mr. Faust explained he was hoping she could use her engineering skills to design a prosthetic foot for a former Marine who’d lost a leg in Afghanistan.

“Do you know Mr. Bane, the department’s volunteer mentor?” he asked. “It’s for his brother, Kendall.” Kendall, he explained, had been an active guy, but the heavy prosthetic foot he now wore made it difficult to do the activities he loved.

Ashley’s heart ached at the thought of Kendall struggling when he’d already sacrificed so much. “Of course I’ll help!” she beamed, enthusiastically.

A week later, Ashley and Mr. Faust met with 26-yearold Kendall. She could hear the joy in Kendall’s voice as he talked about how much he enjoyed hiking, snowboarding and taking his beloved dogs on walks in the mountains. But, sadly, lugging his dense prosthetic foot tired him out quickly.

I have to help him, Ashley thought, excited by the opportunity to serve someone who had put his life on the line while serving our country.

Using the school’s engineering labs, which included industrial 3-D printers and Siemens Solid Edge computer software that could help her create a design, do simulations and ultimately manufacture the prosthetic, Ashley got to work. Her goal was to create a foot that would be significantly lighter and more comfortable.

After several months of hard work and multiple redesigns, Ashley finally found the perfect formula. She made the bottom rubber for good traction and made the foot adjustable so it would have the right fit and shock absorption for various activities. But, most important, she subbed the heavy aluminum of Kendall’s old prosthetic with carbon fiber, which is stronger and considerably lighter.

Ashley delivered the foot to Kendall last February and, when he put it on, his eyes lit up in amazement and he embraced Ashley in a hug that spoke louder than any words.

Today Kendall lives on a farm in Virginia with his wife, Jessica, and their new baby boy. “Having a lighter foot has opened up possibilities that were not there before,” Kendall says. He now looks forward to teaching his son how to bike and snowboard someday.

As for Ashley, she plans to study biomedical engineering at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in the fall, with the hope of eventually going to medical school.

“I want to help make life better for even more people,” Ashley says. “To be able to do something that has a positive impact on somebody else’s life is just so incredible!”