Pied Piper Student Receives A Special Gift to Help Her Be More Independent

Experts say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Now imaging not being able to independently feed yourself. This was the reality for Amanda Frey, a student at Pied Piper, until she received a nice surprise.

Amanda will never take eating independently by herself for granted ever again. She was diagnosed at birth with spastic quadriplegia, however, she worked relentlessly her entire life and she also envisioned a life filled with independence.

Amanda’s grandmother, Emily Woods, explained where her drive to be as independent as possible came from. “Her Mother,” she said. “When I first came into contact with Amanda, she was nine and she wanted to read me a book. Her mother put the book on the table and her mother walked away.” she continues, “I went, ‘okay’ and the mother  said, ‘don’t touch the book’, Amanda opened the book with her nose and then she would wet the corner with her tongue and then use that wet tongue and use it on the wet corner and it got to the middle and her nose would flip the page. Her mother made her be independent.”

Amanda has an amazing ability to utilize technology to its fullest capacity despite being handicapped. On Tuesday, Amanda received a very special surprise, a robotic device that will allow Amanda to eat by herself. It’s called the Obi Robotic Feeder.

Amanda’s grandmother details how excited she was receiving the self feeder. “She was over the moon excited!” she said. “Over the moon. She’s been trying to feed herself since she was two years old and once she saw a man with no arms have a magic spoon she was not going to be happy until she had one herself, and now she has a robot spoon.”