A toy soldier with ALS
Made with love and passion by Katie Zheng, Marissa Merlo, and Sam Stillman.
We made this medically accurate toy soldier figurine suffering from ALS to raise awareness for the ALS community.
Veterans are at least 2X more likely to develop ALS than those who haven't served. 20,895 veterans since 9/11 have been lost to ALS, more than the number of troops killed in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan combined (20,895 vs 6,896).
We 3D printed 100 figurines, sent them out, and received an incredible response from:
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Influencers (Brooke Eby, Lorri Carey's I'm Dying to Tell You Podcast)
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Congress members (Representatives Ken Calvert, Jason Crow, and Terria Sewell)
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Researchers at the VA (Dr. Lleana Howard)
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News & media outlets (Fox 8, Jake Tapper, Guidelines Publications)
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Veterans with ALS (Nathan Cole, Ron Faretra, Juan Reyes, Liz Fassler) and many others.
In the hands of Matt Rocheleau, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist currently living with ALS.
Tim Abeska delivers a figurine to congress members.
Featured in Toy Soldier Collector Magazine.
Dr. Lleana Howard proudly displays the figurine.
We were on Fox8 news...
Ron Faretra, US military
veteran living with ALS.
...and Luerzer's Archive!
Social Media
We were the top post of R/3DPrinting on Reddit during Veterans Day. Earning more than 140,000 organic views with a 96% upvote ratio!
Stop Motion Video
We also created this stop motion video to promote this campaign for the holidays. I created and manipulated the backdrop and props in the scene: the light box inspired paper city, fake snow, and wire ribbons.
