NEW PORT RICHEY — Swinging on a zip line. Getting up close and personal with a congregation of alligators. Getting to play with other kids your age. These may be part of normal vacation experiences for many Florida youngsters, but for children who have impaired mobility, it can seem like such things would happen only in a dream.
Unless Wheelchairs 4 Kids takes you, your family and a host of other families like yours to Gatorland, which it did recently. And once they all arrived at the park, everything from admission to snacks was free.
The trip was part of the Wheely Fun Days offered by Wheelchairs 4 Kids, a Tarpon Springs-based charity that provides wheelchairs, gait train walkers and other mobility equipment free of cost through its “Let’s Roll” program. The agency also is able to make some home modifications, Nina Shaw, its program manager, told the Suncoast News.
The equipment is much needed, the agency says, because many children are using wheelchairs that are in disrepair or are too small for them. Not only is that unsafe, the agency says on its website, “but it can impact their health in numerous ways, including scoliosis, respiratory problems and pressure sores.”
“Medicaid only pays for a wheelchair every five years,” said J. David Wright. “So you have a 9-year-old kid in a wheelchair and five years later he’s 14 and twice the size” but stuck in the same chair. Wright, who was crowned this year’s King Pithla for his contributions to local charities and the community, has been working with Wheelchairs 4 Kids since it was brought to Florida. A photographer, Wright said yes to a request to take pictures at a presentation where he saw what a simple car carrier (to transport a wheelchair) could mean to change a family’s life. “I saw what a difference it would make,” he said. “In this case, her grandmother helped (the child) a lot but she was getting older and getting heavy. This would allow her to put the child’s wheelchair on the back and go different places and do different things.”
Once families are enrolled in the “Let’s Roll” program, Shaw said, they also can participate in Wheely Fun Days, which provide inclusive recreation for the children and their whole families.
“Our kids don’t always get invited to birthday parties, and they don’t get invited to hang out with friends and go to the mall,” she said. “They kind of tend to live very isolated social lives. This allows them to be in a group and get to know each other.”
“It’s a great way to get the kids out,” said Wright. “All of a sudden they’re with kids with the same kinds of disabilities. They’re not different anymore.” It’s great for the parents to interact as well, Shaw and Wright said. Siblings are always included, partially because many families need to devote the bulk of their resources — including time and money — to the child with the medical issues, and the other children don’t get much in the way of treats.
“We don’t like our kids to be excluded, and we don’t want any other children to be excluded,” Shaw said. In addition to the recent trip to Gatorland outings have included activities such as adaptive sailing and adaptive water skiing. In April, Wheelchairs 4 Kids will take 20 children from Tampa to Colorado so they can try adaptive skiing.
The charity also has a Facilities and Equipment program through which it donates gently used items from its inventory to facilities that serve multiple children.
Wheelchairs 4 Kids receives no government funding, relying mostly on private donations and grants. Its next major fundraising activity will be a Celebrity Golf Tournament at Innisbrook Golf Resort on Thursday, May 1.
For information on services for a child, to donate, to volunteer or just to learn more, visit wheelchairs4kids.org or call 727-946-0963.
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