Hello friends and family,

I am heading down to San Diego in September to meet with Hands On Concepts and get an absolutely dialed in, custom wheelchair that will last for years and make so many aspects of my life more efficient. I'm stoked! Unfortunately, insurance only covers 1 wheelchair every 5 years, and they don’t cover any customizations or upgrades unless they are absolutely vital for safety. The estimate for my new chair is about $10,000, so any donation helps!

Being 1.5 years into my C6 spinal cord injury, I have gained an incredible amount of strength and skill back since I was initially fitted for my first wheelchair. Most people's first wheelchair is extremely adjustable to account for the amount of expected change in first 1-2 years of recovery, but those adjustable components leave behind lots of heavy and sharp receiving hardware that is permanently attached my wheelchair frame. I have sliced my legs and fingers countless times on those exposed parts, specifically where the anti-tipper wheels can be inserted and the sharp metal rings on my castor wheel brakes.

Perhaps the biggest issue I experience with my current chair is with the brakes, which can be terrifying. I have gone several multi-week chunks of time where the brakes don't make contact with the tires, and therefor do not successfully stop the wheels. I am currently on week 14 of having no brakes on the left side, and NuMotion (the distributor for medical equipment at Harborview and with my insurance) has consistently ignored my request to get this fixed. They no-showed my last appointment and failed to order the parts to fix the brakes. I have left several messages and talked countless robots on the phone trying to reach someone who can actually help me. It's hard to spend hours of my day trying to deal with this when I have a full-time job like everyone else and also spend 10+ extra hours a week on physical therapy and exercise therapy. The braking system for my new wheelchair will be totally different and I am super excited about it. Rather than having a brake that makes contact with each tire, these brakes will stop the actual wheel at the hub, which means my wheels will NOT be moving at all when the brakes are engaged. I can't stress the importance of sturdy brakes enough. Transferring in and out of bed, the shower and my car are incredibly scary with un-reliable brakes. If you're curious about this braking system, it is called D's Locks brakes.

Additionally, the push handles on my chair are annoying in ways that may not seem frustrating to you, but trust me...I get stuck all over the place. When wearing short sleeves and taking clothes on/off, I get stuck wrapped around the handles at least every other day. They also make it hard to fit my chair in small spaces when the chair is broken down, especially when I am lugging my chair into the car by myself (which is multiple times per day). The handles on my new chair will be collapsable, so I can snap them up when I need to be pushed, and down when I am cruising solo.

I also have major muscle spasms that cause my feet to constantly shoot in front of and behind my foot plate, which is extremely dangerous because (1) I could break my ankles by getting them stuck and/or dragged, and (2) when my feet shoot back it pulls my body out of my wheelchair forwards which is super scary and has caused me to fall out of my chair on multiple occasions. The foot plate I will be getting will have a metal rod bent behind and around my foot plate to stop my heels from shooting back. I will be working with the HOC team to get the perfect height and fit for the foot plate to mitigate muscle spasms that are caused due to my sitting position. The most common muscle spasm I get is called Clonus, which makes my legs and feet bounce up and down uncontrollably for long periods of time.

Other than that, I will be getting knobby wheelchair tires that will provide more traction over un-predictable terrain, push rims that will be much better to my hands, a back rest that is shorter and provides more support, and an over all lighter and minimal design. I can't wait! After my fitting in September, it will take 8-10 weeks for HOC to build my chair. @Handsonconcepts makes incredible wheelchair designs that are unique to each wheelchair user, go check out his Instagram because it’s awesome!

All other funds will got toward getting my adaptive, e-assist mountain bike After riding a bunch of different bikes, I have decided to go with the Bowhead Reach, which will cost a whopping $20,000. Hard to believe...right? Thankfully there are great organizations like the Kelly Brush & High Fives Foundation out there that help fund adaptive sports equipment for people with disabilities, so I am hoping to pay for most of it in grant funding. If you’re curious about adaptive mountain bikes you should check out the Bowhead website/instagram page...I am hooked. It get's me outside to places I wouldn't be able to go in my wheelchair, and I get to go fast and get a little adrenaline again.

Thank you for reading! If you or anyone you know would like to make a direct payment to the builders/companies, please email me at [email redacted].

If you want some 8x10 nature prints or 5x7 nature post cards as a thank you, please comment, message or reach out and I'll send you a bunch. I have literally hundreds, you can take a look on @barbeesworld instagram to get an idea. :)

Cheers ya'll