At the UW-Platteville Holiday Toy Hack, student volunteers "hack" donated electronic toys so that they can be used with adaptive switches. This enables the toy to be enjoyed by children with special needs, who would otherwise be unable to interact with it. The adapted toys have been distributed to families, clinics, schools and other organizations in the tri-state region; from children to adults.

The Toy Hack is also a great opportunity for UW-Platteville students to apply their problem-solving skills to serve the community: theres no one size fits all approach to adapting a toy! We have needed students from education to engineering.

The typical toy costs $20; we typically have requests for 50 toys. This is a great opportunity to make a direct impact with a relatively small donation.

From a parent: "Going out to buy toys for your child's holiday should be great fun, but when your kiddo can't play with many of the toys you know they would love due to physical limitations or issues it can be a bit heartbreaking and a lot frustrating. [The Toy Hack is] a way to take the heartbreak out of the holiday for extra special kiddos like ours and give them a chance to play on their own terms."