Hailey Dawson throws out the ceremonial first pitch before game four of the 2017 World Series. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)
Derek Jeter is a baseball legend, a 14-year All-Star and soon-to-be Hall-of-Famer. Jeter is a player used to inspiring others. But now he’s the one taking inspiration from someone else: an eight-year-old girl who just started third grade.
Hailey Dawson was born with a rare birth defect that robbed her of three fingers on her right hand. A year ago she set out on a journey to throw the ceremonial first pitch at all 30 MLB ballparks with her 3D-printed robotic hand. As Hailey nears her goal, with her final pitch set for the Angels v. Mariners game in LA on Sept. 16, she leaves behind a wake of people—pro athletes included—inspired by her journey.
Jeter called her an inspiration. Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo carved out time to hang out with her ahead of a game and spent a day with her at the World Series, where Hailey also threw a pitch. The second time Rizzo saw her, he asked Hailey whether she remembered him. Of course Hailey remembered, recounted her mom, Yong Dawson, a few months later. Rizzo is one of Hailey’s favorite players. She has his number on her jacket.
“For guys like that to really take the time to talk to her, get to know her,” Yong Dawson said. “For guys like Derek Jeter to call her an inspiration? That blows my mind.”
Pro athletes aren’t the only ones who have been inspired by Hailey’s “Journey to 30.” Engineering students have seen firsthand the heartwarming impacts of biomedical engineering. Other kids with disabilities and their moms have reached out to the Dawsons to seek advice on how they, too, might be able to access life-changing technology.
“Being able to see her confidence out there and see her inspiring not only future engineers but also those who have uniquenesses to their bodies to just love it and be who they are is the biggest thing Hailey has been able to share with the world,” said Maria Gerardi, a University of Nevada, Las Vegas graduate biomedical engineering student who worked directly on the Hailey project.
In fact, Hailey’s story is motivating advances in biomedical engineering and 3D printing around the U.S., according to Stratasys, a 3D-printing company that dedicated printing resources to UNLV.
The use of 3D printing technologies was particularly helpful in Hailey’s case since she will have used a different customized hand for each pitch—30 in total, each covered with the respective team’s logos. Due to her age she was also growing throughout the yearlong journey, requiring constant resizing. Producing new hands so quickly required “ingenuity on their engineering side,” said Jesse Roitenberg, an education segment sales leader at Stratasys.
Stratasys has since begun working with universities and research groups elsewhere to identify other biomedical engineering problems that might be addressed with 3D printing. At the University of Central Florida, Stratasys worked with a prosthetic limb-making nonprofit called Limbitless to print a robotic hand for a 12-year-old boy. Researchers at UCF have added EMG sensors to prosthetics that predict movement based on the way a user flexes their muscles, which is intended to feel more natural than the up-and-down mechanical motion Hailey must use to control her current pitching hand.
“We’ve been working with other groups going deeper,” Roitenberg said. “There’s been so much publicity around it, and this is progressing at a rapid rate.”
The goal, according to Stratasys, is to not only develop more advanced technologies for prosthetics, but also to get more nonprofits and universities involved so that people under the age of 18 who are typically not covered by insurance for prosthetics, can more easily access life-altering technologies. The affordability of additive manufacturing helps makes this more of a reality.
“There’s a group of children who have been the poster children of prosthetics,” Roitenberg said. “It makes people not stop and stare because it’s different, but stop and stare because it’s cool. 3D printing isn’t just creating the next iPhone cover, it’s changing a business to become more sympathetic.”
As for one of those poster children, Hailey Dawson, she has been able to draw her own inspiration from this personal journey. She’s learned how to inspire other kids with disabilities and has realized she can achieve even the loftiest of dreams with hard work and dedication.
“I want to play softball,” Hailey said when asked whether she has been inspired to play sports. At the World Series, Hailey spent a whole day with Jennie Finch, a former collegiate All-American, medal-winning Olympian and pro All-Star.
“And right now,” Yong Dawson said, “she has a goalie stick in her hand.”
