“Those groups of people are there – underserved, underrepresented – and they’re overlooked,” he said.
His students get firsthand experience practicing that concept as they participate in the Go Baby Go project, a nationwide program that aims to modify ride-on toy vehicles for kids with mobility issues.
“The children should have something that looks just like what their buddies have, or what their siblings have,” he said.
Picard, 45, spent 21 years in the U.S. Air Force, performing avionics test station work and spending his last seven years at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base working in logistics policy. When he retired in 2019, he recalled that teaching in an Air Force classroom was his favorite of his jobs. He began teaching at Greene County Career Center that year.
Credit: Bryant Billing
Credit: Bryant Billing
About half of his students enroll in college and tend to enter engineering pathways, he said. The other half enter the workforce, starting careers in fields like manufacturing or computer-aided design and drafting. Some forge other paths, with three former students entering the U.S. Navy nuclear program, he said.
Whatever their plans, students learn many skills from the Go Baby Go project, like reverse engineering, 3D design and printing, circuit construction and the general manufacturing process, he said. They also learn about teamwork and collaboration.
“They really need to have the mindset of troubleshooting and problem solving,” said Picard, of University Row.
Picard was nominated as a Dayton Daily News Community Gem by his wife, Melissa Bertolo, who said that the mobility project not only benefits the children who receive the cars, but also Picard’s students, who learn about adaptive technology and using engineering practices for good.
He gives back both personally and professionally, in the classroom and with their children, she said.
“All the things he’s done have been about making the community better,” Bertolo said.
This is the second year Picard’s class has participated in the Go Baby Go program, with a local grant funding the toy vehicles. With help from the occupational therapy department at Dayton Children’s Hospital, his students learn the nature of the children’s disabilities.
Modifications may include side restraints, increased back support, adding a 5-point harness, overhauling the steering wheel or other changes. One child who used an oxygen tank received a 3D-printed tank holder added to the back of the vehicle.
“We got that thing going and had a happy kid,” Picard said.
He and his students plan to retrofit the toys and have them ready for eight patients from Dayton Children’s between the ages of 2 and 6 before Christmas.
Outside of the career center, Picard also directs the annual Lou Cox at DeWeese Park 5K for the Ohio River Road Runners Club and leads Lego clubs at Dayton’s Fairview Elementary and Edwin Joel Brown Middle schools through Omega Community Development Corporation’s Scholars of HOPE program.
“I do truly enjoy doing things in service for others,” he said.
Credit: Bryant Billing
Credit: Bryant Billing
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