KENT, Conn. -- When word of an invention fair spread at Kent Center School, a third-grade student thought of a device to help her friend with a rare medical condition.

Caroline Johnson said she and Claire Goodman have been friends since kindergarten. Claire has been diagnosed with Rett syndrome, a rare medical condition in which the first symptoms show when a child is between 12 and 18 months old.

"Claire used to walk, she used to talk -- a little bit. She's lost all purposeful hand use. She stopped walking when she was about 3. She had a G-tube inserted for feeding purposes when she was 7, but other than that, she's really happy," said Claire's mother, Tara Goodman.

After learning of her school's invention fair, Caroline decided that she wanted to create something to help her friend. She noticed that Claire had some problems with her wheelchair at school.

"When she's traveling in the hall, her hands would flare out of the wheelchair and they would get bumped sometimes," Caroline said.

Suzanne Knapp, a paraprofessional at Kent Center School, said when she pushed Claire's wheelchair through the door, she would have to take both of her hands and hold them inside the wheelchair.

Caroline invented the Keep Her Cozy, a muff to hold Claire's hands safely inside the wheelchair.

"She didn't want her to get hurt, so she decided for the invention fair she would make an invention so it wouldn't hit the wall, her hand wouldn't hit the wall," said Kent third-grader Joe Pizzo.

Caroline utilized foam, fabric, Velcro and her grandmother's sewing machine to make the invention a reality.

"The first thing I had to do to start my invention was to call Mrs. Goodman to ask what different textures Clair likes to feel and touch," Caroline said.

Although she is unable to speak, Claire was able to communicate whether she liked the fabrics or not. Caroline said that if Claire didn't like a fabric, she would look away.

She wrapped the foam in fabric and put different textured pieces inside and put Velcro around the edges.

"I call it the Keep Her Cozy because it keeps Claire's hands safe and it's cozy in there," Caroline said.

Claire's mother called Caroline her hero.

"Caroline … as a young kid thought about Claire and about what she needed and that's what amazes me, is that how, how thoughtful -- I mean, how amazingly thoughtful that this person is," Goodman said.

The rules of the invention fair call for children to make their inventions unassisted.

"We had to keep it under a certain amount of money, so I used -- my grandma had a lot of material since she's been sewing for a long time, and I learned how to sew on a machine in this process of doing it," Caroline said.

"She has skills that she didn't have before and those are my favorite inventions -- when they learn something new," said the school's invention fair coordinator, Lee Sohl.

Earlier in the year, Caroline's invention won her a savings bond at the Connecticut Invention Convention. About 100 participants from across the state participate in the competition.

More Information:

Link: Connecticut Invention Convention

Link: International Rett Syndrome Association

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