Teen With Special Needs Receives Life-Changing Wheelchair
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A young man with special needs was without a specialized wheelchair, unable to attend school until now.
CBS 2's Brad Edwards reports the special wheelchair donation on the South side has positively changed the man's life.
18-year-old Rico Benjamin's wheelchair did not have brakes, so he wasn't allowed on the school bus and therefore wasn't making it to school.
"It is an $8,000 wheelchair and most importantly it has brakes," said Bob Shea. "This is getting his life back."
Rico's Assistant Principal at Pathways in Education, Jeanelle Smith, stated, "We still have a lot of good people in Chicago."
The effort started in 2015 when two friends wondered what happened with their durable medical goods after they're gone.
One of the friends, Ed Kane, died in 2016 of ALS. The other, Bob Shea, started the Ed Kane Distribution Center of Devices for the Disabled in his memory.
Rico Benjamin's wheelchair, along with a laptop, is his latest good deed.
Rico can catch-up via online courses, working on his new laptop with his Special Ed Teacher Nick Pastwa.
"My grandfather passed away last April," stated Rico. "And a month after he passed, my mother passed."
He says he has lost his caretakers in the past year, leaving him and his brother to raise each other.
"I couldn't ride the bus. Today that changed," said Rico. "It feels great. It's amazing just to show how people that don't even know me were kind enough to get me a chair."
Rico now fully intends to get caught up and graduate from high school in one year.
