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Rich Center for Autism Bike club keeps wheels in motion
Photo
Katie Rickman | The Vindicator John Nagy, a member of Outspokin’ Wheelmen, holds the bike up for Madison Ray, 8, of Youngstown as she and a few students enjoy the bikes donated to the Rich Center for Autism by the recreational bike club to observe May as National Bicycle Month.
By Sean Barron
YOUNGSTOWN
Many adults and children on the autism spectrum have challenges with social skills, language delay, balance and coordination, but for some students at the Rich Center for the Study and Treatment of Autism, many of those difficulties likely will be mitigated, thanks to a longtime area bicycle club.
“This year, we talked to the Rich Center, and it turned out they really needed bicycles,” said John Nagy, vice president of the Outspokin’ Wheelmen, a 42-year-old recreational bicycling club with more than 200 members from Northeast Ohio and western Pennsylvania.
Nagy, a former longtime local broadcaster, and Ed Howley, the Wheelmen’s president, were on hand Wednesday to deliver 13 large and small bicycles to the center, on the Youngstown State University campus. Certain modifications were made to some of the bicycles to assist students on the spectrum who have balance and coordination difficulties.
The bicycles also will be a valuable tool for the 10 youngsters who participated in last summer’s weeklong iCan Shine Inc. bike camp, which the Down Syndrome Association of the Valley sponsored, said Melanie Carfolo, director of the Rich Center, which has about 70 students age 2 to 19.
At the beginning of the camp, participants needed training wheels, but within a week they were able to ride without them, Carfolo recalled.
“We are piggybacking on something our children had participated in,” she said, referring to one of the values of Wednesday’s donation. “I hope this gives them a sense of balance, a sense of freedom and a sense of independence.”
In addition, the students will have another source of exercise, Carfolo said, adding that they will be able in the short run to ride in an enclosed area near Kilcawley Center.
The Outspokin’ Wheelmen, which hosts two invitational rides each year, also has donated bicycles to shelters for battered women in Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties, and the group has taken part in rides against cancer, he said.
The organization, formed in 1973, also tries to be community-minded, Nagy said, adding that he wished to thank Frankford Bicycle Inc. of Girard for making Wednesday’s donation possible.