A SURPRISE Special Gift For A Special Needs Guy

This campaign is to ask for your help to buy a “vehicle” for a guy with cerebral palsy so that he can have a sense of independence. Since Adam has a permanant brain injury he is medically unable to drive a car. He’s almost thirty years old and he has never driven a car because his spasticity won’t allow him to have complete control of his limbs. With his disability he can never get a lisence or even a learner’s permit, which his doctors have all stated flatly. That’s why we are asking for your help to get him a golf cart, or even better, a funmobile, which would allow him to “drive” around inside the neighborhood.

It is Adam’s birthday on January 20th and we are hoping to surprise him with a side by side “golf cart.” A new one would cost upwards of 13,000 but we are looking at a used one to cut the cost. Our budget for a good used one is $7,500. If you feel it on your heart to contribute to an amazing birthday gift for Adam, it would mean a lot to him.

If you would like to read more about Adam, his Mom shared this:

Today, Adam is a regualr guy trapped in a CP body. He’s smart. He’s personable. He’s friendly. He loves meeting new people. He’s never offended when people “stare”, usually asking Mom to explain his limitations to them so as to break the ice and make people more comfortable. Although he has some learning disabilities, he’s a whiz on the computer and video games (once his accomodations are in place). He loves movies and really corny 80’s TV shows, like A-Team, Power Rangers, and TMNT. He acknowledges that they’re super corny, but he’s a fan nonetheless. In fact, his interface with any technologies he uses his foot instead of his hands, because he has more control with his foot. (If you’ve ever seen the old movie, My Left Foot, then you can imagine Adam using the Xbox controller to browse through NetFlix and binge watch TV shows.)

Adam was brain injured when he was a one year old baby when a virus attacked his brain tissue and destroyed the myelin sheath. That’s a medical term for the nerve coating in brain – it can be compared to the insulated covering on an electric cord. You know what happens when an electric cord gets a cut in the rubber coating: you get a shock, because the electricity escapes through and sends a shock. The destruction of the myelin sheath in Adam’s cerebellum has caused a kind of “short circuit” between the commands his brain tries to send to his body, and the “message” being recieved in his limbs. So Adam has to deal with his body having a mind of its own; sometimes his left arm flails out and smacks someone who’s walking or standing nearby. Sometimes his left hand grabs hold of something, or someone, and he’s unable to let go. It’s got to be really frustrating to him because, in social situtions, he might knock things over, or he might grab onto hair or clothing on someone. Thank God for Adam’s sense of humor. Intead of getting angry and frustrated, he usually finds the humor in it and gets everyone laughing along.

Although he’s “non verbal” (which is the medical way of saying he can’t talk), he still manages to communicate with family and friends. And the thing he most often communicates is his sense of humor. Somehow in spite of the hardship of living with his disability, he has a great sense of humor. His biggest heroes have been the handful of comedians he’s seen who incorporate their disability into their comedy routine. For his birthday last year, his siblings drove him up to Tallahassee just to see Josh, a comedian who also has CP.

For his 21st birthday, his brothers and sisters took Adam out for his “first drink” since he was finally “legal” and could buy his own alcohol. Somehow Adam managed to be the center of attention at that bar, with new friends offering to pitch in on his quest for inebriation. By the time his brothers were ready to load his wheelchair into the van, he had almost the entire place giving him a hero’s send off. (It’s one of his favorite memories to carry him through the regualr days of being trapped in a wheelchair.)

Adam needs complete care: everything from dressing and bathing, to eating and drinking. He has to depend on his caregivers (Mom and Dad) to meet all of his personal daily needs. But when he gets a chance to exert his freedom, he takes off like a rocket. Several years ago, his older brother (and best friend in the world) Andrew, picked up an old, broken golf cart and got it running. To everyone’s surprise, Adam was able to drive that thing, and he was always eager to give everyone a ride around the neighborhood. Mind you, it was a wild ride, carreening down the quiet streets, occasionally coming precariously close to the roadside; but on every visit, Adam never missed a chance to get everyone to pile in that bucket of bolts and take them off on a wild ride. (Side note: we never allowed him to drive unaccompanied; always with another adult to supervise in case anything went wrong.) Amazed, we would often recount some of his notorious adventures to Grandma when she called to check on his health, and she could never believe that he was capable of driving independently -- until the day we all pursuaded her and Grandad to let Adam take them for a ride. I think he behaved himself, because she came back convinced... and he was beaming with pride. Unfortunately, that old golf cart didn’t have that much life left in it, although it gave its all for Adam and his joy rides; we had to finally put it to rest, but Adam asks every single week when his siblings visit – they are all adults now and they make sure to come visit for Sunday dinners – if we can find a way to get him a replacement golf cart.

Since Adam is permanantly disabled, once he finished high school his only option was an Adult Day Program (ADP) where he could get regular therapies and socialize with others like him. He really enjoyed going to his ADP because some of his old classmates from school were also attending there, and because of the new friends he met there. But unfortunately, the COVID lockdown caused a complete shutdown of his ADP and nearly bankrupted its owners. That has left Adam sitting at home watching TV every day, and sometimes playing video games with one of his siblings. For over a year, he’s been confined at home with very little to keep himself entertained. The highlight of his week is when his siblings come for Sunday dinner and stay for some games or movies. Of course, sometimes they take him to the movies, or over to main street for pizza and people-watching. He always enjoys the outings with his siblings, but he still misses the feeling of everyone loading into “his ride” with his as the driver.

To keep himself busy during lockdown, Adam has taken on the job of training his dog, a black mouth cur puppy we got for him just before lockdown. He has always wanted to apply for a trained service dog, but the process takes two years or more, so in the meantime he’s training Bandit on his own. He watches hours of training videos on YouTube, and then faithfully walks his dog every morning, rain or shine. (Well, of course he can’t take his power chair out if it’s actually raining, but he insists on going out once the rain stops; plodding down the wet dirt roads with Bandit in tow.) No one is quite sure how he manages to communicate commands since he is unable to give verbal commands – and his gross motor movements are not capable of forming sign language – but he is determined to train that dog himself. And he’s doing an amazing job of it. His goal is to be able to register Bandit to serve as an official service animal, taking the dog with him to restaurants and shopping and allowing him to be more independent.

When Adam was born, he already had three older brothers: Alex, Anthony, and Andrew. When he was hopsitalized, his brothers would visit and play with him, doing all kinds of slapstick comedy to get him to laugh. His closest brother, Andrew, became a young comedian just to distract Adam and keep him smiling. Then along came the girls, Abby, Amy, Angela, and Audrey. And a baby brother for a tie-breaker. So with eight siblings, Adam has been surrounded with love and affection – and at the same time, he has always had to share Mom and Dad’s time and attention – but he has never lacked for tender loving care. Today, Adam is thrilled that his best friend/brother has become a daddy, making Adam into one very proud uncle.