St. Vrain students got to see that dragons can be real with a wish and a push for innovation.
Belle Cress, a 15-year-old from Colorado Springs, stroked her purple-scaled pet dragon as others admired the robotic creature responding to her touch on Wednesday at the Innovation Center. The size of a small dog, the pet dragon was Belle’s wish when she was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a type of aggressive bone cancer.
“When Make-A-Wish asked what she wanted for her wish, she said she wanted a dragon,” her mom, Amber Borata, said. “They asked what her second choice would be and she said, ‘I would like a dragon.’ So they figured out how to make it happen.”
Arrow Electronics partnered with Make-A-Wish to build the pet dragon. The company and Belle’s family visited the Innovation Center on Wednesday for a special guest visit highlighting the process to create Belle’s dragon.
Belle, who is cancer free now, wanted a pet, but her family couldn’t get a cat or dog. She’s also always been interested in dragons.
“She’s loved dragons ever since she was really small, since the first ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ movie came out,” Borata said. “They didn’t scare her. It inspired a love of dragons.”
Working with Arrow Electronics, Belle inspired the design of the dragon and how it would interact with her. The dragon is about the size of a small dog with pink and purple printed scales, horns and butterfly-like wings that expand.
The dragon can eat and play and has touch sensors so it’s capable of interaction. It’s been programmed with realistic movements using cable systems in the tail and neck, and it can even blink. All that takes a lot to make happen, with 25 total servos in the dragon.
Arrow Project Manager Frank Piotrowski said that the work started in July 2019, with the dragon delivered to Belle in March 2021. Now, Belle shares the dragon and her experience with visits to other children.
“To deliver something like that — Belle’s just a wonderful child, a great girl, and we’re really happy to make the dream come true,” Piotrowski said. “That’s a really cool dragon.”
He explained the project allowed Arrow to collaborate with not only Belle, but a variety of partners to create the pet. Now they get to share the project and inspire others.
Jenna Watson, a sophomore at Niwot High School with a passion for robotics, was one of those students.
“The robot itself is extremely interesting, the fact that it has so many motors but is still able to move so smoothly and is able to interact with somebody,” Watson said. “That interaction is really hard to do and it’s very impressive how they pulled it off so well.”
Watson said she was especially excited by the way that these types of projects could help people.
“I didn’t understand that toys such as this could be used in such a way,” she said. “It helps a lot of people, so I like that aspect of it.”
