While Geeks for Kids’ events run from August through June, our Design Team and Business Leaders Board meet year-round. These teams are the Super Geeks of Geeks for Kids, the folks who work behind the scenes to make it possible to get so many kids racing.
Design Team
Building these cars is an ultra-cool tech challenge. Initially, our Design Team chose an off-the-shelf toy, electric car that they could adapt to meet the needs of kids with movement limitations. Then, they designed drive systems, assistive devices and comfort and support systems that make these cars work for each kid we “adopt” – stripping the cars down and building them up with the coolest and must functional tech they can imagine. The Design Team is now hard at work, designing and prototyping our next generation vehicles. We hope to soon offer a mobility solution for kids up to the age of 18 can use indoors as well as outdoors. Whatever the Design Team builds, they do it with one key goal in mind: to make it easy for each of our kids to move, learn and play.
This team:
- Evaluates what works well and what we can do better
- Sketches out new designs and systems for the kinds of cars we have built before
- Brainstorms about how we build new solutions for an ever-increasing number of kids
- Researches new parts and suppliers
- And, plans and prepares for the upcoming build season.
The Design Team meets Monday and Thursday evenings from 5:30 to 8:30p.
The Business Leaders Board
Geeks for Kids might sound like a job for geeky people, but it also requires serious business acumen, too. Designing, building and delivering a bunch of cars is a bit like planning the invasion of Normandy, and doing it with an all-volunteer team is even more challenging; there are so many tools, supplies, people and projects and events to marshal and organize.
If you are a marketer, fundraiser, writer, a project manager, an event planner, or a networker extraordinaire, we need your help! The Business Leaders Board guides the Geeks for Kids operations; they:
- Manage community outreach and communication for Geeks for Kids
- Recruit volunteers, sponsors and donors
- Plan and manage events
- Define better work processes
- Identify and connect with new business partners
- Explore new projects and programs
- And, give LEARN's Board input on the Geeks for Kids mission, vision and goals.
The Business Leaders Board meets for lunch every other Wednesday at noon.
The Wheels & Wishes Committee
Part Watch Party and part Gala, Wheels & Wishes is the biggest celebration of our year. The planning committee makes the event magical.
Wheels & Wishes happens during Delivery Day Kansas City. Guests watch our kids receive their cars from the VIP Viewing Boxes on the Porsche Kansas City sales floor. Then, after touring our Car Design and Vision for the Future Studios, guests enjoy great food, drinks and music while learning more about what we do and why we do it. The events with an annual video documentary and a Fund-a-Need auction.
The committee designs the invitations, chooses the menu, recruits the band, finds sponsors, makes the guest list and does the 1,001 other things that go into hosting a great party. So, if you are a party planner extraordinaire, the hostess with the mostest, an organizer or networker without compare, we need you!
The Wheels & Wishes Committee meets twice a month in the fall and weekly in the spring on Tuesdays from 6 to 8p.
