Compact, foldable and lightweight, this is more than a wheelchair — it’s freedom.
A dream became reality for Windsor’s Nicole Mercado on Wednesday with the surprise presentation of a lightweight power wheelchair, a Shine Foundation gift meant to make the difficult transition to university a little less stressful.
But Mercado, who lives with cerebral palsy, doesn’t plan to spend all her time at school.
“Not only at university,” said Mercado, 19, who still start English literature studies next fall at the University of Windsor.
“I’m planning to use it outside. I want to do more activities with my friends that I couldn’t do before, like going to the mall or shopping. Then I can keep up with them.”
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The foundation provides “lifechanging Shine Dreams” to young people between the ages of 11 and 21 who are living with severe physical disabilities.
Shine uses referral sources across the country, including the John McGivney Children’s Centre, to match up with dream candidates.
The charity does not receive government funding, so it pays for all the dreams through fundraising, corporate donors, and companies that provide funding and gifts in kind.
Mercado’s dream was a lightweight Jazzy powered wheelchair that normally goes for around $4,000. It was provided with help from Motion Windsor, which offers customized mobility and accessibility products.
“It is four times more expensive to have a child with a disability,” said Shine Foundation CEO Tiffany Houston. “Let’s say at Christmas time I’m going out to get a bike for my child. I can go to Canadian Tire.”
“My families that have their kids, they can’t do that. An accessible chair, accessible bike, accessible equipment is about four times more expensive than it would be for a kid without a disability.”
Shine fulfills about 65 dreams a year, ranging from support dogs to a child’s first airplane ride.
“The dream really is as imaginative as they can be, but a lot of times it has to do with their independence, their confidence,” said Houston. “It’s adaptive sports equipment. It’s adaptive equipment like Nicole chose today. It’s really giving them a trajectory to their future a lot of the times.”
Often, that trajectory can be fuelled by something as seemingly simple as getting across campus on time.
“Since I was young, walking is my big problem, and balance when I was walking,” Mercado said after taking her new wheelchair for a spin around the Motion showroom.
“I can walk like 10 minutes, five minutes, and then I’ll be exhausted. And then I get lost easily. They told me campus is really big, so you need something to help you.”
Of course, nothing can purge all of a new student’s anxieties.
“I’m excited, but at the same time nervous for it,” said Mercado, who wants to be an English teacher. “My professor said university is quite harder than high school, so I need to prepare myself for it.”
Courtesy: https://windsorstar.com/news/local-news/lifechanging-shine-foundation-surprises-windsor-student-with-high-tech-wheelchair
twilhelm@postmedia.com
