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TheAssociatedPress OMAHA,NEB. A9-year-old Omaha boy has received a 3-D-printed prosthetic arm delivered by a "Star Wars" fan organization dedicated to charity work. Alvin Garcia Flores, who was born with a right arm that ends just below his el- bow, got his new prosthe- sis at Gateway Elementary School on Thursday from members of the 501st Le- gion, a national fan or- ganization whose mem- bers cosplay as characters from the "Star Wars" films. Darth Vader, an imperial officer, two stormtroopers and a droid made the de- livery. The white arm with gold trim was created by Lim- bitless Solutions, a Florida nonprofit that provides chil- dren with bionic arms for free. The nonprofit created Garcia's arm after his prin- cipal, Terry Burton, reached out to the organization. "I hope that the arm gives Alvin more self-con- fidence at school around his peers," Burton said in a news release. Flores was surprised with the gift and put it on in front of about 140 of his fellow fourth-graders. The arm, which will last about a year, uses electrical currents in muscles to con- trol the arm's hand. When Alvin flexes his biceps, an electrical current prompts the hand of his new arm to grip. Alvin says he was shocked to receive the arm and showed it off to his classmates. His mother, Leticia Flores, watched as her son tested the gift. "He knows that I love him the way that he is... and I always tell you, Papi. Don't ever let anyone tell you what you can and can- not do, you know, right?" Leticia said. TECHNOLOGY PHOTOSBYMATTMILLER—THEWORLD-HERALD Alvin Garcia Flores poses for photos with Storm Troopers as he shows off his new bionic arm in Omaha, Nebraska. Garcia Flores, a fourth-grade student at Gateway Elementary School in Omaha, received a 3D-printed bionic arm from Limbitless Solutions, which was delivered by volunteers from the 501st Legion, the national fan organization for Star Wars. Using Force the Leticia Flores de Garcia wipes away tears as she watches her son being fitted with a new bionic arm. Alvin Garcia Flores adjusts the fit of his new bionic arm . Nebraskaboyreceivesprosthetic 3-D printed arm from organization The pod people have landed. That's the only ex- planation for what has hap- pened. I am no longer who I was. Obviously, the only ra- tional expla- nation is ex- tra-terrestrial intervention with a hefty dose of mind control. The realization that I was altered began inno- cently. We were trying to find a patch of blue sky that matched for both our cal- endars. "What do you look like at 5:30?" she asked. I swiped up on my de- vice until the day came into view. "Can't make it. I've got Zumba." "What about after that?" "Nope," I replied. "I've got another class; it's a high intensity non-contact mixed martial arts kind of thing done to music." "Sounds extreme. You do that right after Zumba?" "Yeah." "Wow! I'm impressed. You're a real fitness enthu- siast." "Not really," I started to respond, but appreci- ated her view that two hours of non-stop exercise could easily be construed as such. I paused for a mo- ment and corrected myself. "I guess I am." You see, the "me" of older days would pretty much do anything to avoid one hour of working out, let alone two in row … not to men- tion the intensity of the ac- tivities. After all, I had ex- cuses aplenty: I'm "old." I've never been an athlete. I'm clumsy. I have asthma. Back then, the extent of my work- out was pushing my luck and jumping to conclusions. Yet, somewhere be- tween then and now, "Yes- terday Me" morphed into "Today Me," whose calen- dar has two-hour blocks at least twice a week where I — willingly I might add — jump, run, punch, kick, sweat and even dance (if you want to call what I do dancing). Even more con- founding is I was paying for the privilege of putting myself through this. How did that happen? There's no "a-ha mo- ment" where I transported from Coach Potato Su- preme to "fitness enthusi- ast." It's not like one day someone lit a flame under my sagging behind and I leapt from my sofa, darted to the gym, and panted away to two hour of aer- obics. More accurately, it evolved. But see, that's the thing … the real method in how change happens, it's not a light switch. More accu- rately, it's a dimmer grad- ually increasing in bright- ness until the darkness is no more. Habits don't just "pop." They make them- selves appear in the same fashion as condensation ap- pears on a cold class of lem- onade on a hot summer's day, gradually coalescing. The outside of the tumbler starts dry, but in short time, it's saturated. The drops didn't all suddenly materi- alize. They gradually, one by one, little by little, de- veloped until the glass was lousy with them. Habits do that, too. One day, I'm "trying out" one Zumba class, forced into it by peer pressure and feeling as relaxed as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs. Yet, while not in- tending to make it a rou- tine, I stuck with it until it was. Then, the folks at the gym had the audacity to add a new quasi-mixed- martial-arts class immedi- ately afterward. "No way!" I emphatically responded when asked if I was going to stay. "I will if you will," she said. "Let's stay a little and see what it's like." And so that happened, and we let it. She said she'd try it again if I did. I sheep- ishly agreed. Twice became thrice. Six turned to a dozen. Now, I look forward to it so much so that I ac- tually bought a heart-rate monitor. "One hundred fifty three!" I exclaimed when I came home. "One hundred fifty three what?" asked my wife. "That was my peak heart rate in my class — 153 beats per minute! Pretty impressive for an old guy, huh?" She nodded, assuming it was important to me by my reaction. 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