Adaptive Cycling
Benefits of Adaptive Cycling
Adaptive cycling utilizing therapeutic tricycles can positively impact the physical, social, and emotional aspects of the lives of individuals living with disabilities. Cycling, in general, is a fabulous way to improve strength, endurance (both cardio-pulmonary and muscular), postural control, coordination, balance, and motor planning. It is also a vehicle for social interactions, sensory and emotional regulation. Unlocking this opportunity for those with disabilities is a gateway to participation within a family unit, a neighborhood and the broader community.
Logo of Music City Trykes
Quick facts about Music City Trykes and AMBUCS that may also be good to share:
1. Music City Trykes is the middle Tennessee chapter of a national service, AMBUCS. There are 145 chapters in 30 states with over 5,000 volunteer members.
2. Our Mission: To provide Amtryke® adaptive tricycles to local children who are otherwise unable to ride a regular bike. Adaptive tricycles are not covered by medical insurance and are very expensive if purchased on the retail market. The first Amtryke was the brainchild of a brilliant pediatric physical therapist from Texas, Sue Haywood.
3. Music City Trykes is 100% volunteer driven. All funds raised support the purchase and assembly of the adaptive tricycles as well as events designed to encourage recipients to ride them. We are always looking for more volunteers to fuel our mission!
4. Every Amtryke is custom ordered and then fitted to each child based on their individual abilities to maximize safety, independence and fun.
5. When a child outgrows their Amtryke we recycle the frame and customize it for another child on our Wish List.
6. To date, we have provided 767 Amtrykes to children living here in middle Tennessee. There are currently over 90 children on our Wish List. Information about donation can be found on our website: www.musiccitytrykes.org.
Bio: Ashley Schilling, PT: President of Muscle City Trykes. Chapter of Ambucs.
Ashley Schilling is a physical therapist with board certification in pediatrics. She works in the pediatric outpatient clinical setting in Murfreesboro, TN, and in the classroom as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. She and her husband are amateur triathletes and cycling enthusiasts. They combine their work (Kyle is a mechanical engineer) and their hobbies in their volunteer work at the local and national levels of AMBUCS- a nonprofit organization with a mission to provide independence through mobility for those with disabilities. Ashley currently serves as the president of Music City Trykes, the middle Tennessee chapter of AMBUCS, and the Therapist Education Coordinator for the National Amtryke Advisory Board. She lives in Murfreesboro with Kyle and their two children, Graham (7) and Isla (5).
Transcript
Marsh Naidoo (00:25):
Hi guys. Welcome to the Raising Kellan podcast. My name is Marsh Naidoo. For those of you who are new to us, I'm a physical therapist by training as well as mom to Kellan, my nine-year-old munchkin with cerebral palsy. I blog it raisingkellen.org as well as host this podcast where we curate resources for parents that are raising children with disabilities. In today's episode, episode number 47, we chat with Ashley Shilling from Music City Trykes. Today's episode is brought to you by Move Up Physical Therapy.
Marsh Naidoo (01:11):
Ashley Shilling is a pediatric physical therapist based in Nashville, Tennessee, and we are so thrilled to have her here with us today. Ashley, welcome , and thank you for talking with us.
Ashley Schilling (01:24):
Oh, I'm humbled and honored to be here. Thank you so much for inviting me, Marsh.
Marsh Naidoo (01:29):
Ashley, what started you on your trajectory to be a physical therapist? Was it your intern to be a pediatric therapist first?
Ashley Schilling (01:37):
That's a great question. So I knew I wanted to go into medicine when I was high school age. You could have asked me and I said I wanted to be a pediatrician. I got into undergraduate, I majored in biology and I worked at a hospital, a local hospital, and I got to know a few doctors. I worked as a CNA and they said, really look at what you're most interested in, which systems of the body and what kind of patient interactions do you wanna have? And they kind of steered me in the direction of they knew how interactive I was and how much I enjoyed the connection with patients. They could see that even in my work as a cna. And they said Medicine is kind of changing. And they were very wise, I think that they could see the future of medicine way back then.
(02:30):
And they just said, if you really wanna have that type of long-term connection with patients, maybe you should look at other areas. Not that I wouldn't love medicine, but they were maybe jaded a little bit, so to speak, by the kind of corporate turn that medicine was starting to take. And unfortunately we might be kind of starting to see that in PT as well. But anyway, so I started to look at different opportunities within the healthcare field and I did an observation at the Iowa State University where I did my undergrad at their athletic facilities where they were doing PT for athletes, for injured athletes. And I went into that setting and thought, Wow, these people are using knowledge of two of my favorite body systems, the nervous system and the musculoskeletal system. And they are basically getting an idea of, and now I would call this diagnosing, but they're getting an idea of the problem.
(03:28):
They're setting up a solution for the problem and then they're coaching the patient through the problem and then they're watching it happen and they're making changes. And that was really inspiring. I thought, I can get behind this and maybe they've got this for children because I always thought I wanted to work with kids. So I did some digging and that's kind of what led me down the road to pt. And the first day of PT school, I told my roommate, I think I wanna do pediatrics. And she said, Oh, it's way too early for you to decide. They tell us, don't specialize yet. And the professors will tell you that too, right? You've got so much time, don't worry about that. But I kinda said from the beginning, no, I really wanna work with kiddos. And I did, had some great rotations, I got to do one at St. Jude, which was life, life-changing and inspiring and gut wrenching and wonderful all in the same time. So I had a really wonderful clinical experience too. So yeah, that's kinda what led me to pediatrics and man, it's been a ride. It's
Marsh Naidoo (04:36):
Off
Ashley Schilling (04:37):
A ride.
Marsh Naidoo (04:38):
Yes ma'am. Crazy how those clinical rotations give us so much direction. But at the same time, it's also crazy how so few of us do get placed in pediatric settings you know what I'm saying? It kind of leaves a little bit of a gap or a leg and somewhat of a fear when you are faced with a pediatric patient because kids are just not little adults. I mean they have their own set of rules. <laugh>,
Ashley Schilling (05:06):
That is exact. That is the slide that I start with in my class. I started with my class this spring. Children are not tiny adults. Right. Yeah. So yeah, I really have enjoyed it. And then it's been a cool journey being in the outpatient setting and in a couple of different styles of clinic private and then hospital based outpatient and now kind of back into a private slash hospital base cuz it's a joint venture between two different organizations. But yeah, so outpatient pains the whole time and it's been not the blast.
Marsh Naidoo (05:41):
Before I get into the actual work you do, I wanna touch on a little on that pediatric experience you had as during undergrad and during clinical rotation. If there are students out there listening to this and sometimes you do know already the population that you wanna work with, and if someone has a inkling that they wanna work with peers, what would you tell them? I mean, how would you steer them to navigate that? Because clinical rotations are few and far right now and there's a challenge with placement as well. So how can they position themselves for that experience?
Ashley Schilling (06:25):
That's a great question. I would say if you know, wanna do pediatrics let your academic clinical coordinator as soon as possible because maybe that person can help find a clinical rotation early on that you can do later. So say that you're a first year and you know wanna do peds, let the A C C E know immediately so that they can look down the line and say, well do you know a specific area? Do you wanna do outpatient? Do you wanna do acute care? Are you open to different settings? And maybe there's a potential for you to not really call dips but say that you want something like that so that they are aware and they can start helping to make those connections with people out in the community. Sometimes they're alumni from your program that they can reach out to and just say, Hey, we, we'd be interested in setting a student your way.
(07:17):
Would you be interested in taking them? Be open to traveling around the country, look at where the contracts are with your school and be open to that experience. Sometimes it can be overwhelming as a student to think about traveling and having two locations to have to live in rent-wise and that kind of thing. But for such a short period of time. So worth it. I got to travel, I went to school at Washington University in St. Louis, but I did a rotation in Montana, I did a rotation in Chicago,I did a rotation in Memphis. Being open to traveling allowed me a little bit broader selection to choose from. So I think if you're open to traveling, that's great. I also think if you have your site set on a location and you really wanna go there, I really wanted to go to St.
(08:06):
Jude. If you know that and there's not a contract with your school, that's something that can take up to a year, maybe even 18 months to get set up through the different legal entities of a clinic and a university. So you need to start that process early. So if you're interested, be your own advocate, go and say, I have this location, I have maybe even contact the CCE of the clinic and say, I would love to be in two years, I'll be a third year PT student and I'll have a 12 week clinical from this date to this date. If you don't already have a student, would you be willing to consider me coming and being a student in your clinic? Be an advocate for yourself for those who aren't sure about going into pediatrics, but might want to get a little taste or flavor.
(08:59):
Find out if your school has any alumni in the area that you could go do a shadow with or find out if the peds, I'm the peds content person for UTC. Find out if they have any connections. I'm connected to a lot of pediatric PTs. Maybe I could send you for a day with my friend who does aquatic therapy. Maybe I could send you for a day with my friend who does therapeutic writing and hippotherapy, get a flavor of what's going on and what's out there. Just kind of tip your toe in the water and you'll know, right? You'll go,
Marsh Naidoo (09:33):
You'll
Ashley Schilling (09:34):
Walk into that pediatric room and the brightly colored balls and the swings and the toys and all the mats on the floor. It will either scare you to death and you'll wanna run away or you'll get so jazzed and so excited and just can't wait to make the day of some little person by singing the theme song to Peppa Pig while they're working on gate training. You'll know, you just will know. And I think that's a great way to test the waters a little bit and see how you might like it.
Marsh Naidoo (10:07):
And it's a great way for you to start advocating for yourself because you are gonna be doing that so much for your patients as well. So it's a great kind of breathing ground so to speak, for developing that advocacy skill
Ashley Schilling (10:22):
And networking. So the Wired Collective and the Wired on Development page. Start looking at resources, maybe not your very first semester, but if you, after your first year, you're really still interested what, what's out there on social media, what's out there? Websites and blogs. And I see students, I'm sure you do too, on the Wired on Development page that students will say, Hi, I'm a third year student and I'm really interested in working in an outpatient clinical setting in the northwest part of the United States. And people from all over start, oh send me a dm, send me a message here to help. I'm here to mentor you. So network early, network often and stay connected within, Cuz we are really are, yes, we're a large group around the globe, but isn't it neat to see that we're really not that we're really this small community of people with this passion and the same drive to help children optimize every outcome. It's really cool.
Marsh Naidoo (11:24):
So guys, I need to give you the heads up on this as you are listening I met Ashley first through Music City Trykes, which is where we sourced Kellan's adapted bike from, but crazy as it is. We also met on a group called the Y Collective, which is a subscription-based service of pediatric therapists that meet up for challenges and all kinds of awesome stuff. And Mindy Silva in New Zealand is the leader of the pack. Hi Mindy, She's
Ashley Schilling (11:59):
Wonderful and thank you for all your work Mindy.
Marsh Naidoo (12:03):
Absolutely. So that would be a really, as a student, if you still wanna think about the collective, I would encourage you to look at Wired on Development, which is a Facebook group as well and provides awesome content. And her podcast,
Ashley Schilling (12:22):
Her podcasts are, I mean,
Marsh Naidoo (12:25):
Phenomenal.
Ashley Schilling (12:26):
I have listened to several of them two or three times because they're just, every time I hear Susan Hastings, I have a mind-blowing nugget of Oh of course. Or Billy Cusick, I have to go back and listen to you two or three times. I dunno how many times I've taken her course and I still need to take it 10 more times. But
Marsh Naidoo (12:45):
I am super excited about you telling us more about Ambucs. You are the president of the Music City Trykes chapter of Ambucs which is a national association. So I'm gonna leave it to you, lead us on Ashley
Ashley Schilling (13:06):
Like you said, I have the honor and privilege of serving as the president of a local chapter, which is called Music City Trykes. I have a national organization called Ambucs with a mission to provide independence through mobility. And Ambox is this amazing organization, it's all across the country. There are chapters, there's over, I think there's over 5,000 chapter members and I can't remember exactly how many chapters, but we're in a lot of different states as well across the country. And the mission for every chapter may vary a little bit, but at its core is to serve the community of people with disabilities through providing access to resources that will improve their mobility. So our chapter in particular does that through what's called the AMTRYKE program. And so trike is actually the brand of adaptive tricycles or therapeutic tricycles that AMBUCS owns. So it's this great way for us as an organization, we actually own the brand so that we have full control over design and manufacturing in terms of what do we see a need within our population that we serve and how can we serve that need.
(14:25):
So that's why we have so many different frames and so many different adaptive accessories and the bikes are super customizable. I think the really neat part of our program is that we require an a licensed occupational therapist or physical therapist to be part of the evaluation for the tryke because we understand as an organization how important it is to take the clinical need of the patient into account even though sometimes our ultimate goal is recreation and participation. We still have to deal with some of those restrictions in the and limitations that we have at the body structure and function level and the impairment level. I think that's one of the cool things about our wishlist process is we do require that part. So Music City Trykes said is a national or is a local chapter of the national organization and I was lucky enough to be one of the first, well, to be on the group.
(15:26):
Part of the group that started it as a therapist, a colleague of mine Jenna Reese came to me when we both worked at Vanderbilt and I love telling the story. It was late, I was so tired, I was 12 hour, it always feels like a 12 or 13 hour day. You're finishing your notes and all you wanna do is go home and that's the time when you get people right when <laugh> yet stone cause you're just so tired. Sure. So she run a rolls up her rollie chair next to mine and she's like, Hey Ash, you like to ride your bike? Because she knew my husband and I had kind of just gotten into cycling and triathlons and I was like, Yes I do. And she said, And you like kids with special needs? And I was like, Yeah, where are we going with this?
(16:15):
And she said, You wanna help me get kids with special needs bikes? And I was like, Sure what? What's happening here? And she said, Well here's the thing. I have a patient who really loves to ride the bike. It's the only thing that makes her happy. And she meant the bike we had at the clinic. And so the whole story is this child had a brain tumor and it was removed, but her quality of life post-operation was not great. She was really debilitated and tired and deconditioned all the time. Her endurance wasn't great and so she needed therapy. But the only thing that was really all that fun to her observation too was the bike. And Jenna used it in therapy and mom saw it. She said, The only thing that makes her smile is this bike. We have to get her a bike.
(17:03):
And mom did the research and said, And there's this organization that exists that we could put her on this list for a bike, but there isn't one here in Nashville. There isn't one in Middle Tennessee at all. So I need you to help me do this. And of course Jenna was like, of course, definitely. Absolutely. And the mom goes, There's only one catch. We need five people. So Jenna came to me, so it was Jenna and me and this mom and my husband and Jenna's husband literally started for one kiddo and 760 something later in 2021 that was 2010, 11 years later here we sit and it's been an amazing journey. Isn't that crazy man? That's how things start. And how
Marsh Naidoo (17:50):
So that's 760 kids lives that you have impacted.
Ashley Schilling (17:54):
Well and what's cool is that it may not quite be 760 because we have a lot of kids who like Callen
Marsh Naidoo (18:01):
Yes.
Ashley Schilling (18:02):
On their tryke and they've recycled their trike to somebody new on the list. So we have gifted 750 times, but that doesn't mean that that's 750 kids. hat may be more 600, 650. We're doing a much better job of keeping track of the recycles now. At first it was kind of a, oh yeah of course we'll take that back and get it rolling out. And then we realized, oh we need to start keeping statistics on this kind of stuff. So we're doing a little bit better job tracking. They will be able to tell people how many we've done that way. But now that we've been doing it for 11 years, we definitely are getting them back more frequently. And we've started using the form that you used. We just created that this year and it's been a really cool thing because with COVID-19, we've really had trouble getting bikes because the manufacturing backlog and it's been awful. The shipping delays and in order to keep this mission in motion is the way that the national office kind of put a spin on it is to keep these bikes coming back in and going back out the door to the next kid that needs it. And we've been really, really fortunate that the families that we've given these trykes to, they take really good care of them because they mean a lot to them and they want the next kid that gets it to be able to benefit too.
Marsh Naidoo (19:30):
Tell me this, okay so this is a twofold question. For the parents out there that are thinking about the bike, how do they reach y'all and then for the therapist out there that have a kid that they wanna refer to y'all or thinking that a bike is gonna be a pretty good idea for that kid, how do they get it? Get you as well.
Ashley Schilling (19:51):
Okay, so let's start on the parent side. So if you live in Middle Tennessee, we serve them, our chapter serves the Middle Tennessee region. If you live here you can go to our website which is www.musiccitytrykes.org. And there is a four families getting a link that you can click on and it kind of has a family information packet with a step-by-step process. You can look at the family information packet and it talks you through which forms need to be filled out by you and which ones by your therapist and then what the funding process looks like. So all that information is on there but sometimes after reading that, families still have questions and we invite those. If you want to email us at musiccitytrykes@gmail.com, I'm happy to answer questions about our process and how we do it. What we like to do is we have a couple big fundraisers a year and then we have a couple of big giveaways builds and giveaways so that way we can use our manpower in the best way possible. COVID-19 really put a damper on how we were doing our giveaways. We would typically build 40 or 50 on a Friday evening and then turn around Saturday morning or afternoon and give 40 or 50 away and
Marsh Naidoo (21:21):
Have a ride to go with that for the kids. Yeah,
Ashley Schilling (21:24):
It was so great and we just couldn't do that with COVID-19. So the last 18 months or so we've been doing smaller giveaways and more one-offs, but we're really hoping to get back to that bigger event because it's really great opportunity for families to meet each other too.
Marsh Naidoo (21:42):
Right, and for the funding you can get on a wishlist, you can sell-fund through your own fundraising as a parent.
Ashley Schilling (21:50):
Yes, absolutely.
Marsh Naidoo (21:52):
Is there a way to source the buy through insurance? How would that work?
Ashley Schilling (21:57):
So there are a couple of insurances that do cover adaptive tricycles as part of DME but the ones that I know about are tricare. So they are military based and they're typically through their Exceptional Children Program or exceptional, I think it's exceptional child or exceptional children program. So that's sometimes an option. But the majority of the time private insurances do not. Unfortunately they view it as an unneeded
Marsh Naidoo (22:28):
Necessity
Ashley Schilling (22:29):
An unnecessary item which I can sit here and argue the benefits at all the different levels, the domains of the ICF but especially participation Marsh as a physical therapist, as a pediatric physical therapist, that is our ultimate goal is participation and how we support that level is really difficult. I think a lot of us have a hard time wrapping around arms around what that means. But what I've found is that the bike can be a way for the child to participate in a way that he or she is not able to do with really any other piece of equipment because it almost levels the playing field and families view it as something they can do together. So suddenly instead of we had one mom say dad and sister would go on a walk every night together, but mom and our rider would stay home every night because he would get so fatigued walking in his gate trainer that it was maybe a half a block he could get and he kind of got discouraged and said, I don't wanna stop going, I don't wanna go anywhere.
(23:47):
So he got his bike and now every evening when they go on their walk, he rides along with them and he rides the full distance and that's like a mile a night. Think of it, it's not only mom gets now mom gets her exercise, which she rips bike, the family gets time together, which they weren't getting at all. They were getting the split time and he feels a part of something he feels and he doesn't get the fatigue. So I think it's just a win-win win. So hopefully insurance is in the future, will see it. And that's one thing that I'm very interested in is doing some research to show and really back up those claims because the antidotes, we can do those all day long, but insurance companies,
Marsh Naidoo (24:34):
They
Ashley Schilling (24:34):
Want that hard data. <laugh>.
Marsh Naidoo (24:36):
So the really good ,Tennessee for a long time Oh Katie, we did not see this. Katie Beckett is finally being introduced this year, which will allow parents that have private insurance to actually, and I believe the limit is they have access to funds, but this allows them to buy medically necessary equipment or have those services provided to their child with developmental delay and disabilities. So that could potentially be another source for funding as well. So I am a therapist out in the rural area, but I know my kid needs a bike and I know about Ambucs what do I do as a therapist?
Ashley Schilling (25:33):
Well if you live near Middle Tennessee and you're available on August 21st, you can come join us at Amtrak evaluation and fitting training for therapists. We're doing a CEU course and it's worth five CCUs through Pro-Cert. We got that certified. We'll cover the basics of what bike to choose and why in the morning in a classroom-type setting with a demo or two. And then the afternoon is all hands-on lab and you're literally fitting kids on bikes. That music scene trykes is giving away that day. So yeah, it's gonna be a blast. So if you can do that, that would be great. If you can't make that, then I am more than willing to help guide a therapist through the process. I've done that several times via Zoom, especially during COVID. Walk them through the process, take you through how to do the measurements and then really think about the different neurological and musculoskeletal functional limitations that we may have that we need to support with the child on the tryke and figuring out where are they gonna ride it, who is going to be there to support them.
(26:44):
Because those are the critical questions we have when it comes to determining you. Got it. Safety has to be first. Absolutely. In the class, I say this, I would much rather a therapist error on the side of fun when it comes to the trykes because we could definitely get really therapeutic and we could make these kids, I hate to say this, we could make 'em work hard on the bike so that they could get stronger and better coordination and better balance. But I always say if this tryke is going home to be utilized as a way to get recreational fitness and to be a part of either neighborhood fun or family fun, then let's err on the side of fun and make it successful. Because what I've found is if we make it successful outside in the community in the clinic, I can make it a little challenging and I can maybe put that therapeutic spin on it and I get the kid, the kids are a lot more motivated to do it then because they are successful at home.
(27:50):
They know they're gonna work hard for maybe especially in the clinic, but they're gonna go home and they're gonna ride their heart out on their bike at home. So that's one thing that I really like therapists to understand is really make sure that the kid is set up for the most possible. Yeah, exactly. Let's be successful. We're working on online training. So I didn't mention, I'm also part of the National AMBUCS advisory board and we've been playing with this online training format for a while and we've actually, I've recorded a couple of modules with the help of the Birmingham chapter and we're just right now trying to figure out the logistics of how to access it and secure cloud storage and all of that. So it's in the works. So that is coming at some point. And so that way if you are in a rural area and you don't have access to those in on in-person trainings we can help you because I feel like this is something that once a pediatric therapist gets their hands on one of these and has one child have amazing success, they just realize, oh my goodness, this is something that every child could potentially benefit from.
(28:57):
Absolutely. And bike riding is such a rite of childhood passage in so many cultures and I definitely feel like an American culture in most cultures. You look around the world there are, look at Europe, everybody rides a bike in Europe sometimes there's places that have more bikes than cars even in Asia. So I feel like cycling in and of itself has support worldwide. And so why shouldn't everybody be given that opportunity? So if we can make it happen, let's try. That's always my mantra especially when I have the therapists say, But I have this child who's GFCs level five and has poor head control and very high muscle tone and has to have dependent mobility in his or her chair. And I say we can always try. Great.
Marsh Naidoo (29:51):
That's really Ashley, thank you for taking time out of your day to talk to us and share the benefits of cycling for our kids.
Ashley Schilling (30:00):
And there's any other questions you think of later that I didn't address because I went off the rails. You just let
Marsh Naidoo (30:05):
<laugh>. Ok. I tell you what, we weren't quite sure about the logistics of how the adapted bike would work for Kellan, however, we came to one of you guys as you right? Biking events and just, we got to try out the different bikes. So that did not involve a financial investment. It was just a time investment. Yeah. So it was a found trip coming out to Nashville. So I think more of these opportunities for parents to take these kids to events where they have access to equipment without having necessary to buy the equipment, but actually absolutely try the equipment before that purchase. And
Ashley Schilling (30:54):
We definitely wanna get back to being able to do a little more of that with Covid kind of calming down. And so if parents are interested in that and when we do one of our big giveaways, that's the time to do it because that's when we order the biggest array of bikes. I do have people contact me sometimes and say, Hey, do you have a bike? I can try. And I am actually kind of proud to say, Nope, they're all out being rid right now unless I happen to have one that's just been recycled that I'm fixing up in. Well, I'm not, my husband is fixing up in the garage then no, because we kind of have a policy that if something comes back, we try to get it right back out the door. And I'm super proud we have such an incredible team of dedicated volunteers.
(31:37):
And this is what I also wanna say to parents and anybody listening to this, if you are interested in volunteering with us, we will take you and we will wrap our arms around you because we're always looking for folks say that a child in Dickson has outgrown a bike but we don't have any volunteers that live out there. I might send a message to our volunteers and say, Hey, can anybody be a tryke foster parent for just a couple weeks? Go pick up the bike and I'm gonna arrange for the next kiddo to get it. But we have to make sure it's in good condition and there's no safety issues. So that kind of volunteer support is just so vital to what we do because everybody that does it is a volunteer and the majority of us work full-time jobs. So we would love it. And sometimes we get some of the coolest stories.
(32:26):
If you have just one more minute, I will share one with you. Yes, we gave, Oh this is so great. So it's probably about two and a half years now. No, he got it when he was three and he's like eight now. So five years ago, a little guy on my caseload got one of the smallest bikes and he rode it until he outgrew it. And at one of our big fundraisers he was next up to get a bike. He recycled his little bike and we presented his next bike at one of our fundraisers. And then we invited his parents to come to the fundraiser and they spoke about the benefits of the bike and how much it meant to them as a family. And they walked away from that with his middle-sized bike and they went home and they were like, This really has meant a lot to us.
(33:19):
Well they had him out riding in their neighborhood and their neighbor came up and said, Hey, where did you get that bike? Because my daughter has never been able to ride a bike and we're kinda interested. And so they came to me and said, Can we don't tell this family but can we support our neighbor's bike? And I said, Absolutely. So within a few months we had neighbor riding and neighbor's big brother was there when we fit her and he told his mom, if there's any way I can be involved, he's a sophomore in high school at this point or a junior in high school. If there's any way I can be involved, I wanna be. So his mom reaches out and I knew he was interested in engineering cuz he and my little seven year old little boy were playing with Legos in the garage that day. And Graham said he wants to be an engineer like Daddy. And so when I called his mom, I said, Would you be willing to build a bike, would you? And she said, Yes, yes, he definitely, we wanna build a bike. So then we got him a bike to build and then he came to the giveaway event and watched us fit the little guy and he said, I wanna do it again. He has now built three trykes and marsh. He wants to be potentially a pediatric
Marsh Naidoo (34:43):
Physical nurse. Oh, that's awesome. That is awesome. <laugh>.
Ashley Schilling (34:48):
So this kindness, I get chill bumps every time I think about it. It's just, it's this kindness ripple effect, right? So we got guy, a little bike when he was tiny and then invited parents to come to this event and they were like, you know guys, they didn't realize what Music City Trikes kind of did, I don't think, until the fundraising event. And then were, and then the neighbors saw, so then they support the neighbor and then the neighbor's brother and the neighbor's brother's friend, high school friend wants to help build the bike. So it's just this exponential kindness wave that is happening and it's so incredibly humbling to be a part of it. And I'm so humbled to share it with you. Thank you.
Marsh Naidoo (35:31):
And I know, but that's just exactly what it's about. It's this empowerment and education and sharing of resources. I mean that's exactly what it's about and Absolutely.
Ashley Schilling (35:43):
Absolutely.
Marsh Naidoo (35:45):
And I hate to end off
Ashley Schilling (35:48):
Oh no, you're fine. You're both need to work tomorrow
Marsh Naidoo (35:55):
I know it. But thank you so much Ashley, and I look forward to talking to you again in the future and getting this message out to our parents and therapists. And that upcoming continuing education event you are having is on August the
Ashley Schilling (36:17):
21st,
Marsh Naidoo (36:18):
21st,
Ashley Schilling (36:20):
And it's being held at High Hopes in the High Hopes Development Center in Brentwood.
Marsh Naidoo (36:25):
All right, dear. Well, you have a awesome evening and great be talking to you. What
Ashley Schilling (36:30):
A pleasure. You have a great night too.
Marsh Naidoo (36:31):
Bye Ashley. Bye now.
Marsh Naidoo (36:34):
And guys, that's the end of another episode of the Raising Kellan podcast. And thank you to Move Up physical therapy for sponsoring this episode. And until we see you guys the next time, remember as always, get the chop of your mountain. This is Marsh Naidoo signing off.