New Wheels for Hannah

This fundraiser is for a new wheelchair-accessible passenger van for Hannah Sherlock, and is being organized by her friends Niki, Maggie, Neta, and Johnny.

Back in August 2022, Hannah’s van shut off by itself in the middle of a busy street. The computer system that allows her to drive the van with hand controls had failed. She was stranded.

Hannah has Muscular Dystrophy, and uses a power wheelchair full-time, meaning that she needs a wheelchair-accessible vehicle to commute or travel anywhere. For the past 12 years, Pequod, her fully modified van, has allowed her to get anywhere she needed to go. Hannah drove it through college and grad school, to and from her teaching position at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, and across state lines to her new house in a small town outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she lives with her husband, Jared, and a ridiculous shepherd-corgi mix named Pumpkin.

Despite the van's most valiant efforts, these vehicles are only designed to work for 10 years, and while Hannah and Jared were grateful to see it last an additional two years, they now find themselves without reliable transportation. They do not live in a city with public transit, so without an accessible van, Hannah is essentially homebound.

As her friends, we have decided to help her ask for help, because a new van with the modifications she and her chair require (a lowered floor, a ramp installation, and EZ-lock restraint system) costs upwards of $75,000. The vast majority of that will have to be paid upfront. For a variety of reasons, Hannah and Jared have decided not to get a van with the computer system and hand controls this time, which would have added another $35,000 to the total cost. This will not be one she can drive, but they have weighed the pros and cons and decided they can make it work.

The service that helped Hannah get Pequod 12 years ago said they’d only ever finance one vehicle. Another won’t help because she is married and her husband is able to go out for groceries and necessities. Medi-transit services can take her to the hospital and nothing else is considered a necessity.

Hannah has dedicated a huge part of her life to disability advocacy. Her heart is enormous and through knowing her we have all come to see how much of her desire to help others informs her everyday life. Much of our time together is spent discussing ways to open eyes to a new way of seeing the world, the realities of living with a disability, and how the system has failed others less fortunate than herself.

When we heard about the dire straits Hannah was in with her van, we knew we had to do something. Unfortunately, we cannot do this alone. Your donations would change Hannah’s life, and would also allow the people who care about her to stop worrying so much.

Every dollar helps! Thank you.

If you're interested in getting to know a little more about Hannah, here are links to her

instagram and blog.