Dale's road to independence
Donation protected
Dale is 16 year old and a very independent girl, despite living with Osteogenesis Imperfecta - type III commonly known as "Brittle Bone Disease" in which she has sustained over 150 broken bones. Dale is not able to walk and needs to use a wheelchair to get around because her body isn’t strong enough to support itself.
Now that she is 16, she just wants to be like her friends an have an opportunity to drive. We have tried to find assistance to help with this through our state, but haven't had any luck. It turns out if both parents work then there is no funding available. If both of us didn't work then we wouldn't be afford to live. They don't take in to any considerations of how much more things cost for disabled individuals, how much traveling we do for medical care, and how many hospital stays we have had. Yes we have insurance but unfortunately it doesn’t cover everything. We found a driving school that we were hoping that could help Dale. They came to our home and got her adjusted to go driving and then after she came back from driving they told us we would have to wait until next summer to go to their school and stay there for 3 weeks while Dale goes driving. How can a family afford to do this? They are asking people who have spent the most of their lives away from their families due to medical surgeries, hospital stays, then tell us oh you have to come and stay here for 3 weeks as well. Then they told us that the state probably won't pay for all of the modifications to a vehicle for her anyway.
We currently have a minivan with a ramp that you have to manually pull out. The van is way too large for Dale to drive and she would not be able to work the ramp on her own anyway. She doesn't need anything fancy, just something that could accommodate her and allow her to drive and be independent.
She is currently working at Wegmans as a cashier in hopes to save money for this, but there is no way she could save the money she needs to purchase this on her own. Everything costs twice as much for handicapped individuals which is completely unfair. Wegmans is 20 to 30 minutes from us, and we can not afford to take her to work, drive home then come back. So my husband and I will take turns and we will sit in the car for 4 to 5 hours in the parking lot until she is finished working. If Dale could drive her own this would be so helpful to all of us. We wish we could afford to purchase this vehicle for her, but unfortunately we can not. With all of the costs we have had over these last 15 years, we just can't get ourselves caught up enough to do this for her. All of her medical care takes place at Johns Hopkins, which is over 3 hours away from us, and the costs add up in traveling, co pays, etc. We would just like to give Dale this opportunity to drive and be independent, she has her drivers permit, but if she can't drive any of our vehicles then there is no point. It is very frustrating and we feel helpless. Dale's dream is to be able to drive on her own and the first thing that she wants to do - is to get into her car crank the music up of her favorite band "Twenty One Pilots", and go on a joy ride all by herself.
Thank you for your support.
Robyn (Dale's mom)
Now that she is 16, she just wants to be like her friends an have an opportunity to drive. We have tried to find assistance to help with this through our state, but haven't had any luck. It turns out if both parents work then there is no funding available. If both of us didn't work then we wouldn't be afford to live. They don't take in to any considerations of how much more things cost for disabled individuals, how much traveling we do for medical care, and how many hospital stays we have had. Yes we have insurance but unfortunately it doesn’t cover everything. We found a driving school that we were hoping that could help Dale. They came to our home and got her adjusted to go driving and then after she came back from driving they told us we would have to wait until next summer to go to their school and stay there for 3 weeks while Dale goes driving. How can a family afford to do this? They are asking people who have spent the most of their lives away from their families due to medical surgeries, hospital stays, then tell us oh you have to come and stay here for 3 weeks as well. Then they told us that the state probably won't pay for all of the modifications to a vehicle for her anyway.
We currently have a minivan with a ramp that you have to manually pull out. The van is way too large for Dale to drive and she would not be able to work the ramp on her own anyway. She doesn't need anything fancy, just something that could accommodate her and allow her to drive and be independent.
She is currently working at Wegmans as a cashier in hopes to save money for this, but there is no way she could save the money she needs to purchase this on her own. Everything costs twice as much for handicapped individuals which is completely unfair. Wegmans is 20 to 30 minutes from us, and we can not afford to take her to work, drive home then come back. So my husband and I will take turns and we will sit in the car for 4 to 5 hours in the parking lot until she is finished working. If Dale could drive her own this would be so helpful to all of us. We wish we could afford to purchase this vehicle for her, but unfortunately we can not. With all of the costs we have had over these last 15 years, we just can't get ourselves caught up enough to do this for her. All of her medical care takes place at Johns Hopkins, which is over 3 hours away from us, and the costs add up in traveling, co pays, etc. We would just like to give Dale this opportunity to drive and be independent, she has her drivers permit, but if she can't drive any of our vehicles then there is no point. It is very frustrating and we feel helpless. Dale's dream is to be able to drive on her own and the first thing that she wants to do - is to get into her car crank the music up of her favorite band "Twenty One Pilots", and go on a joy ride all by herself.
Thank you for your support.
Robyn (Dale's mom)
Organizer
Robyn Comly Dyke
Organizer
Bellefonte, PA
