Two Minutes and $7,000 Later, Special Needs Kids in Dublin Have a New Adaptive Bike

By AUTUMN JOHNSON

How do you raise nearly $7,000 in two minutes in Dublin? You take a bike ride. But as I learned last fall, it is not who rides on the bike, it is who believes the bike is priceless that helps raise that chunk of money.

I am going to be honest when I say that raising $7,000 to buy a bicycle during an auction seemed a bit daunting to me at first, but I know of so many past acts of kindness in this town. Dubliners always seems to rally when push comes to shove.

So seated as the passenger on an adaptive bike ridden by Dublin High teacher Peter Dragula, I was pushed (literally) out in front of the spirited crowd at the annual Dublin Partners in Education Celebrity Waiter event last October. Dragula and I had teamed up to try to garner enough funds to buy a second bike for the special needs students in Dublin. Upon seeing the tandem bike, the crowd clapped and cheered and the noise of the party faded as Dragula announced the purpose behind the therapeutic tool. Dragula explained that the bicycle is used so the special needs students could work on motor coordination skills, along with having transportation but it was the cost of that tool that caused the crowd to go silent. Dragula and I were asking for $7,000. That is a lot of money during a time when the community already gives so much to the schools.

Turns out, though, this was no tough sell at all. As host and auctioneer Brad Kinney started the bidding, partygoers at the event gave. And gave. And gave until we had raised almost $7,000 in about two minutes.

Peter Dragula says the new bicycle will also offer much needed exercise for the kids with disabilities.

“An increase in exercise alone in the life of a student with a moderate/severe disability is huge deal,” according to Dragula. “These students are human beings that experience the same hormonal challenges that every other teenager goes through.”

Dragula said the school PFSO helped cover the last bit of the money needed to purchase the bike.

Photos courtesy Peter Dragula blog post via Dublin High website.