A heartwarming story about Disney creating a one-of-a-kind corrective helmet for a young girl has come to light. As ABC 7 reports one-year-old Emma Janes was born with a number of issues including a head that wasn’t growing in a normal way. In order to correct this, the baby girl would have to wear what is known as a DOC band, often referred to as a corrective helmet.
Her original helmet was white and looked similar to casts used for broken bones. As her grandmother, Rani Janes, says, “Taking Emma out the first few days… we got a lot of stares.” She added, “I found that wearing the white DOC Band made it look almost like a cast on your arm or leg, something medically necessary but just awful to wear.”
Enter Emma’s aunt, Shawn Boyone, who happens to be a Senior Programming Manager for Disney Consumer Products and Interactive. Boyone asked two of her coworkers, Ricky Taylor and Michael Bourne of the Disney Interactive Production Design team, to help her create a special helmet for her niece. With the Disney hit Frozen as their inspiration, the two men got to work on Emma’s special gift.
Once presented with the new band, Janes says that attitudes on the street changed immensely. “It has been such a blessing to have Disney help create such an awe-inspiring design for Emma’s DOC Band. Emma gets so much positive feedback from everyone around her and I believe that is only going to increase her developmental progress as well. It gives her an excellent chance to develop eye contact and social skills with others. And most importantly, I plan on keeping it as a treasure from her childhood. She’ll be able to look at it and realize how much she’s been cared by everyone around her.”
Thankfully Emma no longer needs her special band. She is doing well and has even just learned to crawl. “We look forward to Emma achieving many more milestones in the near future,” says Janes.