NEWS

Christopher's Promise gives bikes to special needs kids

Emily Maddern
emaddern@newarkadvocate.com

NEWARK – Carrie and John Wysocki never knew what they were missing until they went on their first bike ride with their daughters.

The ride was a long time coming. Although the parents and two of their daughters often enjoyed riding their bikes around Newark, it often meant leaving 11-year-old Gabby behind.

Gabby was diagnosed with a brain tumor when she was just 31/2 years old. While undergoing testing for her cancer, doctors found that Gabby also was missing part of Chromosome 8, which has left her with motor delays and physical challenges.

"We had tried to get her on a tricycle, but it was always a short-term thing," John said. "She had trouble balancing and getting the pedals moving. I would see her getting frustrated with it, and eventually, she would just give up."

Gabby Wysocki takes her first ride on her new accessible tricycle alongside her dad, John. The bike, donated by Christopher’s Promise, was built specifically to meet Gabby’s individual needs and will allow her to use it as she grows.

But this past summer, Gabby received an accessible tricycle from Christopher's Promise, an organization that helps provide bicycles to children with special needs. Since then, she has been a biking machine.

John is a co-owner of Newark CrossFit, and it is not uncommon for Gabby to be down at the gym with him. And when she is, she's usually chatting with the members, being her usual social butterfly, John said.

One of the gym's members, Kristen Burns, was used to seeing Gabby around, and one day, she asked Gabby's parents what challenges she faced. After talking with John and Carrie, Burns said she would talk to her sister, Lauren Lichtenauer, about getting a bike for Gabby.

Lichtenauer, a Heath High School graduate, is the founder of Christopher's Promise. John and Carrie weren't sure about the bike at first; they already tried and failed to get Gabby cycling and were worried this would be another letdown.

They couldn't have been more wrong.

Gabby took to her tricycle right away and was soon making circles around the gym and traveling up and down the alleyway outside.

"When Gabby realized she was making it move herself and she was steering it, it was so transformative for her," Carrie said.

A few days later, John loaded the family's bikes into the back of his truck, including Gabby's new tricycle, and the family headed to the bike path. It was the first time the family was able to ride as a complete unit, and it's a moment that Carrie will never forget.

"As a parent of a child with disabilities, you start saying: 'These are things that won't happen for my child.' And you grieve for those things," Carrie said. "But now biking is something we can all participate in together. I never knew how much I was missing out on because I always accepted that a family bike ride was something we couldn't do."

It's those moments that make Lichtenauer realize how important something as simple as a bicycle can be to a family. She remembers growing up riding bikes with her sister and how it was such a staple in her childhood, and she didn't want to think of a child missing out on that experience.

Lichtenauer was inspired to create Christopher's Promise after meeting a young boy named Christopher while interning at Camp Sunshine, a summer camp in Maine for children with life-threatening illnesses.

"Christopher was the one kid that really stuck out. I don't know why, I think it's mainly because of how happy of a kid he was despite his limitations and challenges. The week I worked with him, he ran me ragged," she said.

She never forgot him, and a few years later, she ran into him again at Flying Horse Farms in Mount Gilead, a summer camp for children with special needs.

Lichtenauer wanted to find some way to help Christopher, and the idea of a bike popped into her head. She was still an avid cyclist and was managing a bike shop, so it seemed the perfect fit.

With help from partners Athletes Helping Athletes, Keen Shoes and Columbus-based bike shop Roll, she was able to put together an adaptive bicycle for Christopher.

The bike was such a success that she decided to do another giveaway, then another, and one more after that. It slowly grew from a small project into something much larger. Christopher's Promise recently donated its 50th adaptive bicycle and is now on its way to becoming a 501(c)(3).

Christopher's Promise has become such a big passion for Lichtenauer, who looks forward every day to the possibility of helping more children experience the independence and freedom of riding a bicycle.

"These families don't have any money to throw away. When you have a child with disabilities, you have to get all kinds of equipment — braces, wheelchairs. A bike isn't something they need, it's just something to have fun on," she said. "But a bike offers physical development and strength, as well as emotional development and social development. It's still a bike, but for a kid with a physical disability, it's so much more."

emaddern@newarkadvocate.com

740-328-8513

Twitter: @emmaddern

Christopher's Promise

Christopher's Promise is a grass-roots, nonprofit initiative to provide children who have special circumstances with the proper adaptive equipment for cycling.

For more information on Christopher's promise, visit www.christopherspromise.org. Like Christopher's Promise on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ChristophersPromise and follow the organization on Twitter at @llichtenauer.