Chases Warrior Foundation

“It all started a little shy of 3 1/2 years ago. We had been living in Chase’s room in the Rehab unit at Gillette’s for about 2 months.  Taking turns commuting home to see Tanner and Ava, while the other spent the night with Chase. Every time I pulled into the neighborhood and rounded the second turn on Bobcat Trail – a vision would take over me…  The vision of Chase, sitting forward on his yellow bike, the front twisted tire pointed right towards the house, his right knee up prepped for takeoff….. That 3-mile smile from ear to ear, hands gripped firm on the little bars, looking over his right shoulder, he was ready to thrust into action.  When I pulled up next to him on the street, Bam!-his head started jockeying back and forth while his bike bobbed from side to side from the training wheels that were bouncing off the sidewalk. Those little legs moving faster than they were meant to… “I’m gonna beat ya dad!  I’m gonna win!” his little voice screamed in delight……….

Seconds later, I pulled up to the quiet, empty driveway, I would once again realize this was just a distant memory, unlikely to happen again ……or was it?

I remember it as if it was yesterday. -The first time I saw Chaser on that Freedom Concepts bike at Gillette’s hospital…… I stepped past the guard station, looked down the hall, and there it was.   Lisa was heading towards me pushing Chase on a bike. I couldn’t believe my eyes.  Chase was sitting upright with his legs moving with the pedals.  My little dude was riding a bike again!  I had to to be part of this!  After pushing him around the fourth floor for 30 minutes or so I told Lisa, “we have to get one of these!”  So we asked one of his therapists where we could get this and if insurance paid for it. “No, insurance doesn’t cover it, and they are very expensive!”  Well, it turns out they are Very expensive.  The cost is much more than some extra spending cash.  After meeting other families on Facebook all over the country in situations similar to ours, we found that most of their children were not fortunate enough to experience riding this incredible bike.  Most did not know it exists.  And then it hit me- I call it a divine intervention, you can call it a light bulb came on, whatever…….” What if we could raise some money and give these to other people in our situation?” Lisa and I chatted about it many times.  If we could somehow raise money, we could share this life changing experience with other parents out there!  We put the idea on hold to focus on our own situation.