Christmas decorations raises funds and spreads festive joy

Muscular Dystrophy Australia (MDA) and Monash University have joined forces to create the Little Miracles campaign, a initiative involving the creation of Christmas decorations by seven children living with MD.

The decorations, each capturing a story of the child they were created by are printed using recycled plastic on an environmentally-friendly 3D printer by engineers at Monash University’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering.

“I love music, singing and dancing. So I made a glittery disco ball. Hopefully it brings as much joy to your family as it did to me when I made it. I’m really proud of it”, 6 year old Ryan Christie says.

13 year old Alex Gatt says one of the best things about Christmas is Santa, which is why he chose to create his decoration.

“Don’t we all just love him? I made this ornament in grade four because Santa makes me so happy.”

All funds raised by Little Miracles will be donated to the National Muscular Dystrophy Research Centre in Melbourne, to continue the valued research, helping improve the lives of the one in every 625 Australians living with the condition.

Executive Director at MDA Boris Struk thanks Monash University for helping bring the campaign to life.

“Innovation and creativity is key to cutting through the cluttered not-for-profit and fundraising space full of worthy causes and MDA is always looking for campaigns that stand out, in order to raise awareness, funds and support for the muscular dystrophy community,” he says.

“We’ve had the idea for this Christmas campaign for a while and thanks to the generosity and skills of the engineers at Monash University and AKQA, we are able to turn this into a reality.

“We hope this Christmas many people will purchase these decorations that represent so much and join us by dedicating their tree to muscular dystrophy.”

Manager of Monash University’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering says the department is excited to showcase the incredible use of 3D printers through this campaign.

“We do a lot of different things here, from building parts for planes to creating medical equipment with our 3D printing technology and we’re thrilled to be able to use this same technology to give something to a cause as great as MDA’s Christmas campaign,” she says.

To purchase a truly special Little Miracles decoration for your Christmas tree, click here.