AMBUCS President Dr. Wendy Harris, kneeling, and service coordinator Tammy Tubell help Alexis Daniels and Jacob Pryor get ready to ride special needs bikes for children after the organization delivered them to the Alabama Department of Rehabilitation Services -Robin Conn / The Huntsville Times
HUNTSVILLE, AL – “I’m going to ride it home!”
Ten-year-old Jacob Pryor’s proclamation Thursday night – issued through a grin as wide as an open door – is what you’d expect from a kid with his first bike.
Yes, Jacob lives in Hazel Green, but this guy was so excited he might have made it home.
That’s because Jacob isn’t an ordinary kid, and his bike isn’t an ordinary bike. Like everything else where he was Thursday night, both the boy and the bike are special.
Jacob and a handful of other kids, along with their parents and therapists, met at the Alabama Department of Rehabilitation Services offices for a presentation.
The kids all got adapted AmTryke tricycles, specialized three-wheelers that can be modified a dozen ways to meet a dozen special needs.
They average $500 each, and that’s if you buy them discounted through a nonprofit here called Huntsville Tennessee Valley AMBUCS.
Danyell Canon, 9, of Moulton needed a little extra seat support on hers.
Danyell has a brain disorder, hip issues and a few other challenges. Thursday night, she also added a big grin to all that.
The kids weren’t the only ones smiling.
Alice Daniel was smiling, too. Her boss, Jim Emmenegger, and her co-workers in the Propulsion Test Group at Marshall Space Flight Center, helped buy an AmTryke for her 12-year-old daughter with Down syndrome.
Family Security Credit Union helped buy Danyell’s three-wheeler, and Torch Technologies chipped in elsewhere, too.
And then there was Greg Davis of Glass Seating and Mobility, a local company involved in complex rehabilitation. Davis assembled all seven tricycles handed out Thursday night.
“I love kids,” he said simply. “When you see them riding, they’re doing something we take for granted.”
Davis gets it. The three-wheelers mean kids who couldn’t now can go outside. They can play with their brothers and sisters. They can move.
“It’s been a long hard trip,” said Candy Canon. Her daughter wasn’t supposed to live.
“We’ve proved doctors don’t always know everything,” she said.
Danyell had been asking for an AmTryke for three years since she first rode one at school.
But as one of the organizers noted, “You can use insurance for walkers and wheelchairs, not for this. This organization is for the fun stuff.”
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