Inside Town Centre Mall can be found a display case full of paper vehicles. Painstakingly constructed out of card stock with detailed drawn hubcaps and logos, they are the work of Roy Lim.
“I just like to build them,” said Lim. “ It makes me feel pretty good.”
Lim started making the model trucks about five or six years ago and has constructed 18-wheelers, trains and even helicopters out of paper.
“People say it looks precise and they get excited,” said Lim. “I like it when they say good things; it makes me want to make more.”
Lim suffers from congenital sensory autonomic neuropathy, a condition that prevents him from feeling pain. As a child this meant multiple broken bones and infections, which is why he uses a wheelchair today.
Lim said he makes many of the vehicles to give away as gifts, so he can help change people’s perceptions of him.
“I build things so people know I am clever and can do things with my hands,” he said. “I have hobbies and talents like everyone else.”
A graduate of Brooks Secondary School, Lim now volunteers at the MCC Thrift Shop once a week, in addition to attending classes twice weekly at Vancouver Island University’s workplace essential skills and training program.
“I would like a job with lots of competition so I can be the best,” said Lim. “I am working on my resume.”
Lim recently made a gift of a model 18-wheeler truck to Travis Young, a Gordon Food Services driver who recently relocated his family back to Powell River.
“I’m really impressed at the detail he put in the truck, the colours are exactly right and he even put in the correct type of hitch attachments,” said Young. “What a nice welcome home for me.”
More examples of Lim’s work can be found on display at Town Centre Mall.
