Every Kid Mobility Puts Children With Special Needs On Bikes
HUGO - The road to opening Every Kid Mobility in 2005 for Sally Brown was anything but simple.
How she decided to begin this business, which essentially puts kids with special needs—in particular, with cerebral palsy—on bikes, was a journey that began decades before she began the business.
Her Story
Sally Brown was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi, home of the famous blues musician Muddy Waters.
At age two, Brown was formally diagnosed with cerebral palsy (CP), and although the condition would forever compromise her physical movements and ability to walk, Brown said she never let the disease get her down.
“My mom always believed I would walk,” said Brown. “Back then, there was no therapy, so she just had to kind of make it up.”
And so Brown and her “tough as nails” mother began a journey. “When I was about three, they started operating on my legs,” said Brown.
“Back then, it was real experimental.”
Her childhood consisted of going to school, making it to the summer break, and then having more operations on her legs to get her ready to go back to school again.
“I kind of thought that that’s what everybody did,” said Brown. “I didn’t realize that [surgery every summer] was such a strange thing.”
While society can be harsh on its weakest members, Brown said that her experience growing up in a small town was different.
“I didn’t really realize that it was weird, and I don’t think that the kids I was raised with really thought it was weird either, because I had always been there with them.”
But that all changed when a new student enrolled in her elementary school.
“When I was in second grade, Bob moved to town,” said Brown. “He started teasing me because I walked funny.”The results of this boy’s actions were devastating.
“You know how kids are, once he started teasing me, other kids started teasing me, too,” said Brown. “It was really traumatic; I was mortified.”
So to deal with Bob and the rest of the children, Brown sheltered herself and began separating her identity from her disability.
“It was important for me to never let anybody know how I felt about [the teasing],” said Brown. “I spent a lot of time and energy proving in some odd way that I didn’t have any disability of any kind.”
Brown came to Minnesota in 1998, largely because of job relocation.
“For years I worked in data processing and information technology, and I did that for twenty-some years,” said Brown.
As was true in her childhood, Brown separated herself from her disability.
“I have CP,” said Brown.
“It’s like I spent the first part of my life and a good deal of my adult life proving that I didn’t have any kind of a disability.”
But then her defining moment occurred. “The year that I was 50, I had a really good friend who died of AIDS,” said Brown.
Her friend’s challenge was simple: “Do something about this.”
Making A Difference— In Herself
So Brown did exactly that.
“Somehow, I decided I needed to ride in the AIDS ride.”
And the rest, as they say, is history. She signed up to ride in Minnesota’s fi rst annual Red Ribbon Ride in 2004. “When I was a kid, I kind of learned how to ride a two-wheel bike, but it wasn’t very fun.”
When a friend recommended she look at riding a three-wheel bike, she flinched a bit, but that’s when she found Jim Muellner, a Hugo resident who previously owned Smarte Carte.
“He started building these [three-wheeled incumbent] bikes,” said Brown.
“At first, I couldn’t ride it. We worked and worked on it, and we got it so I could ride it.”
During the four days it took for her to complete the 300-mile race, Brown reflected on her life.
“I spent a lot of time on that trip by myself. It was the most amazing thing,” said Brown. “As I was riding, I would cry, and there was some real level of self-acceptance.”
Despite her finishing last in the race, Brown was changed. She had experienced something entirely new on that journey.
“It was the first real public thing that I had ever done that was physical like that,” said Brown. “When I got up off the bike at the end of that ride, I was diff erent.”
Within a year, Brown was saying to herself, “I have got to quit my job and make sure kids get these bikes.”
Brown admitted that she lacked the necessary experience to be an entrepreneur.
“I had sold almost nothing in my whole life, and I certainly didn’t know anything about selling medical equipment.”
She sold two bikes in her first year.
One of the biggest obstacles was helping families aff ord the bikes. In particular, she found that insurance companies uniformly won’t cover them, a policy that Brown called “completely ridiculous.”
She says that with the pedaling and range of motion involved in riding, the bikes actually help families avoid expensive leg surgeries.
“The bikes are really, really expensive—so we spend a lot of time looking for money,” said Brown. “I limp a little harder when I’m raising money to help people get their bikes!”
“Even the most cognitively disabled are changed by the experience of getting on a bike,” she said. And that experience goes straight to her heart. “I cry daily,” she said quietly.
Young Christian of Minnetonka, now 10, was helped from his wheelchair onto a bike at Brown’s White Bear Lake store several weeks ago.
The smiles began almost immediately.
Halfway down the sidewalk, his feet strapped into the bike pedals, Christian was steering his bike while Brown’s son and business partner Chris Reich pushed from behind.
Of course, the big question wasn’t long in coming.
“When do I get to take it home?” Christian asked his dad, Ken.
Christian, who has a twin sister Marie and attends 4th grade, was told he would have to wait for his blue bicycle (it’s his favorite color).
Although fundraising was well underway, the family needed to raise an additional $1,100 before the bike could go home with him.
That’s a lot for a family that has faced substantial obstacles— some of them financial— for a decade.
New Ventures—And New Challenges
Since beginning the business just four years ago, Brown said that she is also selling colorfully designed crutches, which highlight— rather than hide—the tools used by many CP kids at school.
Recently, she helped a family in Kentucky get their daughter, who has CP, to use crutches. Brown sent the girl a pink pair wrapped with flowers, and her mother sent back a video showing the girl walking to her dad.
Brown’s newest venture is selling canes. Brown said that they just finished a cane that has a picture of a man’s granddaughter on it.
“If you have something that’s really cool, then instead of being scared of it, the other kids want to see it, and the whole dynamic changes,” she said. “I don’t understand why it’s never been done before.”
As if the magic of the business hasn’t been enough, Brown also published a children’s book in 2007 entitled “The Big Red Bike,” which is available on www.amazon. com.
Despite all of her successes, however, Brown says that business has been rough recently.
“The truth is, I don’t know if we’re going to make it,” she said. “We always have a big push for Christmas bikes, but this past winter was very diffi cult for people.”
But with some recent innovative approaches to the business and the needs of her customers, Brown, who shares space with Just Two Bikes in White Bear Lake in addition to her store in Hugo, said, “If we can get the crutches and the canes out there, we might be just fine.”
Like her story, like her arrival in Minnesota, like her experience with a dear friend, like her successful ride for AIDS research, Brown is not one to back down to adversity.
“If I just keep plugging along, it’s such an awesome idea, it’s just got to take hold!” said Brown. “I hope that we get to the point where more therapy places include bikes—it’s the cheapest kind of therapy.”
Update: Since this article was written, Christian has now received his bike, thanks to donations om Gillette Hospital Sports fund, Minnesota Big Dads, and the customers of White Bear Locksmith, who contribute at the counter. Every Kid Mobility is located at 15449 Forest Boulevard in Hugo (651-426-1548) and at 471 Banning Ave. in White Bear Lake. Readers can also visit Sally Brown’s business at www.everykidmobility.com.