OCEANA COUNTY—
This Labor Day Weekend, for the first time, 9-year-old Abby Pinkerman can feel what it's like to ride a bike with her little sister, and the rest of the kids at the campground.Abby was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy, and isn't able to hang on to the handle bars to ride a traditional bike. Abby's friend Abby Sawicki decided she was going to raise $763 for a custom designed bike to get Abby on the road, and help with physical therapy. Ambucs is known for providing bikes to kids with disabilities, but Abby S. didn't want to wait to ride side by side with her friend.
"We were like we have a friend that needs a bike, let's get her a bike, but there's such a long list of people that need a bike that we have to raise money for, so we couldn't just bump somebody from the list, so that's when Abby decided that she was going to collect the pop cans," said mom and Ambucs member from Grandville, Tanya Sawicki.
Abby isn't able to talk, but her smile and cheers were a telling sign that she was thrilled to finally have her own set of wheels.
"She can't ride normal bikes because the handle bars she can't hold, so that was always an issue for her so knowing that she has this bike that she can ride for a long long time is pretty amazing," said Abby's mom, Lia Pinkerman from Indiana.
The two little girls met this summer at Sandy Shores Campground and hit it off right away. It took three weeks to get Abby's bike customized, and the Ambucs will provide a replacement bike for her as she grows.
"Hopefully they'll be friends for a long time, and abby with always have a bike," said Tanya Sawicki. "So they'll always be able to ride together."
