ROCKFORD - Kylie Wicker is just a regular nine year old girl, who says she enjoys the simple things in life like outdoor activities. “I can finally ride my bike!” 
 
 
 
 Although sometimes doing those things is very difficult. Kylie was born without fingers on her left hand, and although she keeps a smile on her face there are times that she breaks down. “She has always been pretty positive about it, but lately when she was breaking down, it was kind of hard.” said Jeromy Wicker, Kylies Father. 
 
 
 
 That is all about to change, thanks to students at Boylan High School. Staff received an email from Kylie's dad last month, asking the school to help in the process of making an affordable prosthetic hand through the schools 3-D printer. “He had seen online that you could make a 3D printout of the fingers on a plastic printer, and he knew we had one” said Bud May, the teacher of the Engineering Graphics class at Boylan High School. 
 
 
 
 The prosthetic hand works through the movement in Kylie’s wrist, and the flexible cords that are inside of the device make her fingers stand outwards and when Kylie bends her wrist forward, the length gets longer, and the cables force the hand to grasp and close. 
 
 
 
 In just a few days, Kylie can wear the prosthetic device, and she said she could not be more thrilled. “It’s coming really fast, because I’m going to get it on Friday, and it’s really exciting.” 
 
 
 
 Normally, a prosthetic hand could cost thousands of dollars, Kylie’s mother said that doctors and medical professionals say the price for devices like this is steep “$The price is usually around $20,000 up to $50,000, and then you have to take in the fact that she is only nine years old, and the way she grows, she will grow out of them” said Sharon Wicker, Kylies mom. 
 
 
 
 Although many have to pay big bucks for a device like Kylie’s, you will not believe how much the 3D printed hand at Boylan costs. “The total cost of this hand will be barely $5.00, there is maybe $1.00 worth of plastic, and it costs a couple of bucks for the fasteners.” Said May 
 
 
 
 Although the cost is cheap, the impact is priceless. “There is a lot of things that have gone through my mind that she can do now, that she can accomplish a lot easier with her new hand.” Said Kylie’s mother, Sharon Wicker 
 
 

 Students from an Illinois high school engineering class are using a 3-D printer to make a prosthetic hand for a 9-year-old girl born without fingers on her left hand. 
 
 Kylie Wicker, a third-grader at Whitman Post Elementary School in Rockton, will be presented with the prosthetic hand on Friday at Boylan High School, where students are hard at work making the device, the Rockford Register Star reported. 
 
 Bud May, instructor of the engineering graphics class, told MyFoxPhilly.com that Kylie's father approached the school after reading stories on the Internet about 3-D printing technology helping children born with underdeveloped fingers 
 
 “He had seen online that you could make a 3-D printout of the fingers on a plastic printer, and he knew we had one," May told the station. "The flexible cords make the fingers stand out when you bend the wrist forward the length gets longer and the cables force the hand to grasp." 
 
 A regular prosthetic hand could cost up to $50,000. Kylie's family is reportedly waiting to get her a device with built-in sensors once she is fully grown. 
 
 "I can finally ride my bike," Kylie told the station. 
 
 Kylie’s mom, Sharon Wicker, told the Rockford Register Star that her daughter will now be able to do things most young girls take for granted, such as dressing her American Girl dolls and quickly grabbing something to eat or drink. 
 
 "It’s the little stuff that we take for granted that we don’t even notice that she can’t do right now that she’ll be able to do,” Wicker said. “Even when she’s eating, if she’s taking a bite of something, she can’t just grab her drink and take a drink real quick. She has to set it all down." 
 
 The production cost for Kylie’s prosthetic hand is about $5, according to the report. 
 
 "It’s amazing. This is all out there on the public domain," May told the newspaper. "You just scale the entire set up or down to fit the hand." 
 
 Click here for more from MyFoxPhilly.com. 
 
 Click here for more from the Rockford Register Star. 

 The past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of excitement for 10 Boylan Catholic High School students and a 9-year-old Roscoe girl, brought together by the girl's need for a low-cost prosthetic hand and the students' willingness to help. 
 
 Kylie Wicker, a third grader at Whitman Post Elementary School, was born without fingers on her left hand. The bubbling ball of energy with long brown hair and a dimpled smile was used to other kids staring and asking questions. This year was different, said her dad, Jeromy Wicker. 
 
 "You could tell. ... It was starting to bother her," Wicker said. 
 
 Insurance would only cover the cost of one prosthetic in her lifetime, Wicker said, so the family was going to wait until Kylie was done growing to get her a full-blown prosthesis with built-in sensors that can read muscle commands. Those can cost tens of thousands of dollars. 
 
 The plan was to wait until Kylie was older to get a prosthesis, but that plan changed when Jeromy Wicker went to the Internet earlier this year. 
 
 He wondered what other kids were doing while they waited to be "big enough" for a hand or an arm or a leg. What he found blew him away. 
 
 The Internet was filled with stories from around the world about a new invention - a prosthetic hand made using a 3-D printer and instructions the creators posted online for free, for anyone to use. 
 
 Wicker started looking for a 3-D printer in the area and someone who might be willing to take on the challenge. His search led him to Boylan where 10 enthusiastic engineering graphics students jumped at the chance to make a difference in the little girl's life. 
 
 The students and their instructor, Bud May, met the Wickers last week. May took some measurements of Kylie's hand and wrist, and the class started using a 3-D printer that was donated to the school last year to make the 20 to 30 pieces that they will assemble to make the plastic hand. 
 
 They plan to present the finished product to Kylie and her parents Friday at the school. 
 
 As for Kylie, she's most excited about the simple things that her new prosthetic will let her do. 
 
 “Catching a ball, doing the monkey bars,” she said. 
 
 Kylie smiled and nodded her head to a number of other tasks that her parents mentioned from dressing her American Girl dolls to having better control when she's riding her bike. 
 
 "It's the little stuff that we take for granted that we don't even notice that she can't do right now that she'll be able to do," said Kylie's mom, Sharon Wicker. "Even when she's eating, if she's taking a bite of something, she can't just grab her drink and take a drink real quick. She has to set it all down." 
 
 The production cost for Kylie's prosthetic is only about $5, May said. It consists of about 30 parts -- the molded plastic pieces that act as fingers, cables, elastic, metal pins and a wrist form.
– A 9-year-old born without fingers on one hand is getting a gift from Illinois high school students: a new hand, Fox News reports. The students are 3D-printing the prosthetic device, which works through wrist movement, mystateline.com notes. Typically, prosthetics can run up to $50,000, says Kylie Wicker's mom. "The total cost of this hand will be barely $5, there is maybe $1 worth of plastic, and it costs a couple of bucks for the fasteners," says the engineering teacher in charge of the 10-student project in Rockton. Now Kylie's looking forward to "catching a ball, doing the monkey bars," she tells the Rockford Register Star.