wheelssapori

Founder’s Statement

Hello! My name is Denise Jungbert, and I am the President of “Wheels For Kids”, a non-profit organization established in 2003 to provide wheelchairs to children with disabilities and their families who could not otherwise afford to purchase them.

I would like to tell you a little bit about what brought me here. My daughter, Ashlee, just turned 18 years old in October 2006. From the start, she was seemingly without problems, but at 9 months of age, Ashlee was not progressing as she should. Ashlee was weak. We learned that she suffered from a condition known as Hypotonia Cerebral Palsy.

Ashlee’s father and I were working full-time, but did not make enough money for the five-day-a-week physical and occupational therapies, which cost over $100,000 per year. At the time we did not have health insurance. When we tried to obtain it, we discovered that pre-existing conditions were not covered.

Ashlee’s first manual wheelchair at age 2, which she quickly outgrew, cost $3,200. The costs for Ashlee’s therapies, braces and wheelchairs were so high that my husband and I could not financially support her. I quit my job, and my husband and I divorced in 1992 in order to qualify for Medicaid to shoulder Ashlee’s medical bills. However, we stayed a nuclear family.

We were told by the doctors that Ashlee would go from a crib, to a bed, to a nursing home and that would be her life. We refused to accept this, and vigorously championed her therapies. Ashlee has now had four wheelchairs totaling $36,000. Her current custom-made electric wheelchair cost $24,000 and most recently needed the seating to be refurbished at a cost of $3500.

This is why I established “Wheels For Kids” – to help middle class families with children with disabilities keep up with the progressive growth and cost of wheelchairs. I want to help the children who fall between the cracks. I hope you will join me on my journey.

Wheels for Kids, Inc.

Help Us put

the Wheels in Motion!

www.wheelsforkids.org

Wheels for Kids, Inc. is a nonprofit organization, founded in 2003 by Denise Jungbert in honor of her daughter, Ashlee, who has Cerebral Palsy (CP). The organization was established to provide wheelchairs to handicapped children afflicted with CP living in Palm Beach County who are financially unable to purchase them on their own and who do not qualify for public funding or other charitable sources. It was created in the belief that working parents should not have to give up their livelihoods to give their child the most healthy and independent life possible.

Cerebral Palsy affects children physically in many different ways for which a wheelchair must be designed and modified to the special needs of the child. For example: some children may need headrest support, lateral body support, and specific seating to support being in a wheelchair up to 12 hours a day. Like our legs, a customized wheelchair makes life a great deal easier and in many cases gives a child more independence to interact with others without assistance.

Objective

Wheels for Kids, Inc.’s ultimate goal is to make sure every child who needs ac ustom-made mobility device receives one from Wheels for Kids after exhausting all other sources.

What is Cerebral Palsy?

Cerebral Palsy is an umbrella-like term used to describe a group of chronic disorders impairing control of movement that appear in the first few years of life and generally do not worsen over time. The term cerebral refers to the brain’s two halves or hemispheres, and palsy describes any disorder that impairs control of body movement. Thus, these disorders are not caused by problems in the muscles or nerves. Instead, faulty development or damage to motor areas in the brain disrupts the brain’s ability to adequately control movement and posture. At this time, it cannot be cured, although scientific research continues to yield improved treatments and methods of prevention.

Join Us!

If you would like to make a donation or if you have a wheelchair you would like to donate to us, please contact us at (561) 752-0799.

P.O. Box 57

West Palm Beach, FL

33402-0057

www.wheelsforkids.org