On Thursday, a student at East Milton Elementary School received a gift to help make his life more active.
The gift was a new motorized wheel chair, which Chase Burney, a fifth-grader in Mrs. Tammy Dillard’s class, needed in order to be mobile. Chase has Cerebral Palsy and attends Dillard’s ESE classes at East Milton. According to Assistant Principal Jerilyn Hughes Chase’s mother, Bonnie Burney, has three other children and although she is extremely active in his education, the cost of a new chair is just too much. “He really needed a new chair as he is outgrowing his old one and he has to have a chair in order to be active and move around the way he needs to,” says Hughes. Chase was delighted to get out of his old chair and into the new one. He was so grateful that he prepared a speech beforehand to give in thanks for his new gift. “Thank you for taking your time to show the wheelchair and let me use it until I get a new one because my old one was getting a little small and it takes a while to get another chair because they cost so much money,” he said. “I really appreciate you for coming to my school and meeting me in person. Thank you for being a nice person. This really means a great deal to me to have a stranger want to help me,” said Chase.
Noble, the teacher who initiated contact with the Grottos and coordinated the wheelchair donation also expressed her gratitude for the group’s help.