Riding a bike is a rite of passage for generations of young kids, but children with mobility challenges can feel excluded when they are unable to participate.
Oliver Wilson, left, and Summer Durflinger prepare to ride their new therapeutic tricycles Wednesday around the Mary Rutan Hospital Physical Rehabilitation Center. (EXAMINER PHOTO | NATE SMITH)
Fortunately, two local children with developmental disabilities feel left out no longer thanks to joint donations Wednesday from the Bellefontaine Kiwanis Club and local Moose chapters.
Oliver Wilson, 5, and Summer Durflinger, 10, were each gifted a special bicycle during a presentation at Mary Rutan Hospital Physical Rehabilitation Center, 2200 Timber Trail, by Kiwanians and Bellefontaine Moose Lodge 2563, Women of the Moose Chapter 2228 and Bellefontaine Chapter of the Miami Valley Moose Legion 103.
This is about the third time the community service organizations have teamed up to purchase therapeutic tricycles and given them away to children that could use them, Bellefontaine Kiwanis treasurer Brad Kunze said.
Summer now can join her sister on fun bike rides up and down father John Durflinger’s rural Rushsylvania property, an activity that previously she had to sit out. The Bellefontaine City Schools fourth-grader was born with a cyst that puts pressure on her pituitary gland and affects her mobility, among the other things. Treatment for the condition has left her susceptible to seizures, her mom, Susan Householder said.
“Now I can ride a bike, too,” Summer said, pedaling her way about an open physical therapy room.
Read complete story in Friday’s Examiner.
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