Voyageur Lions help blind girl to ride bike

While biking may not be on the list of activities you’d think it would be safe for a blind child to do, one Grade 3 student at Robert Moore School here can ride like the wind thanks to a donation from the local Voyageur Lions Club.
This fall, eight-year-old Jade Green can be seen pedalling a type of bicycle called a “Trail-A-Bike,” smiling all the while, as her vision resource teacher Cynthia Donald rides ahead of her.
“It’s cool. I love it,” the youngster enthused Monday, adding she can get some exercise but “not worry about falling.”
“It’s interesting,” she added when asked to describe the sensation of riding a bike without sight.
Green said she has rode a bike before under parental supervision, and is not afraid to take to the road.
“I got a grip on it,” she remarked, referring to her bicycle-riding skills.
The “Trail-A-Bike” has all the features of a regular bike, but is connected to another bike in front of it that another person pedals and steers.
The intention is to let the blind person get some exercise, as well as experience motion and speed in a way they might not otherwise safely get.
While her home room teacher is Frank McComb, Green goes out riding with Donald, whose job it is to help any vision-impaired students. Green, who’s at Robert Moore for her second year now, is the only student Donald is working with at this time.
“I help the classroom teacher, and try to include Jade as much in the curriculum as possible, with some modifications obviously,” Donald explained.
“I think [the bike] gives her the opportunity to get some exercise and let her participate if we ever do a bike rodeo with the class,” she remarked.
“Sometimes it’s difficult to have that inclusionary aspect of phys. ed.—it depends on what team sport we’re doing, what locomotive skill we’re doing.
“This will help her work on her overall cardio fitness. Just get out and let that wind blow in her face. Let her get that carefree feeling,” added Donald.
“I think she’s going to enjoy the trips we hopefully get before snow falls.”
Donald and Green gave the “Trail-A-Bike,” which was available through Skates & Blades here, a try before the school year ended in June.
“We went for quite a ride and she really enjoyed it,” said Donald. “So I thought, ‘Yeah, this is something we should look into.’”
Donald got thinking about whether a local service club could help purchase the bike, which costs more than $760.
She then thought of the Voyageur Lions, which she knew had a mandate to raise funds for guide dogs and the blind. The club already had been contacted about Green by her parents, Mike and Charlotte, and had expressed interest in helping her in some way.
“The Lions Club was right there,” Donald said of their response to her request, noting other groups, such as the Robert Moore-based Kiwanis Builders Club, also offered to buy it.
“We all agreed this would be a wonderful opportunity,” Val Martindale of the Voyageur Lions said Monday, adding the club had been notified about Green and had been looking to be her “buddy” because of the group’s dedication to helping people who are sightless.
“So when we had the opportunity to do the bike for her, we felt that it was a great thing to do,” Martindale remarked. “Cynthia Donald explained what she wanted to do and we thought, ‘This will be wonderful.’
“We wanted to buy her the bike because it was something tangible that we could give her, it would help her physically, and it fulfilled our mandate of helping people who have vision impairment,” Martindale added.
She also said the Voyageur Lions and Fort Frances High School Leo Club will be open to other ways to help Green in the future.
“At this point, she’s not eligible for a dog guide, but we’ll sure be looking at that down the road for her,” Martindale noted. “And apparently she’s been going to the School for the Blind to take Braille lessons, so that’s great.
“Again, further down the road, we might looking at buying her a Braille writer.
“We want to take her on as our ‘buddy.’ We want to help her,” Martindale stressed.