June 2013 - Allegheny West Magazine

BAYER HOSTS VARIETY THE CHILDREN’S CHARITY;
LOCAL YOUTH RECEIVES BIKE DUE TO GENEROSITY OF AREA BUSINESSES AND ORGANIZATIONS
On April 19, Bayer Corporation hosted
Variety the Children’s Charity for the
organization’s “My Bike” adaptive bike
presentation program. Over a hundred
families from Allegheny and surrounding
counties, all with children with disabilities
preventing them from riding a bike, attended
the program and were given adaptive bikes.
Speaking to a large audience at Freddie’s
Café on the Bayer campus, Variety CEO
Charlie LaVallee credited Governor Tom
Corbett and a number of Pennsylvania
representatives in attendance, including
Congressman Tim Murphy and Allegheny
County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, for helping
to bring the program to communities surrounding
Pittsburgh. He also thanked Bayer
MaterialScience President Jerry MacCleary
for hosting the event.
“We are today enjoying joy, freedom, and
belonging,” Charlie told the audience, a
sentiment echoed by the governor moments
later.
Governor Corbett described the importance
of riding a bike as, “the ability to feel as if
they are connected to the rest of the world,”
saying that was, “worth the price of these bikes.”
Congressman Murphy related his own experiences of working at
Children’s Hospital with disabled children whose families asked
him, “What can we do now”
According to a press release from Variety, the charity last year
distributed 92 bikes in the Pittsburgh area using nearly $500,000
STORY AND PHOTO
BY DOUG HUGHEY
raised by communities in southwestern Pennsylvania. The
number of bikes distributed this year brings that total to 264
adaptive bikes, with children receiving those bikes residing in 82
different school districts. In its 10-county coverage area, Variety
has identified 290 children who are eligible for the program. The
top three diagnoses of children receiving bikes have been
cerebral palsy, autism, and Down syndrome.
Among those in attendance at the event at Bayer were Nathan
and Margarite Christy, whose five-year-old son Sebastian
suffers from cerebral palsy. The family lives in McDonald, in the
West Allegheny community. Nathan and Margarite adopted
Sebastian and another boy, Samuel, both of whom have been
diagnosed with cerebral palsy. The couple also has an adopted
daughter named Lily.
Margarite says a physical therapist at the Western Pennsylvania
School for the Blind in Oakland, where Sebastian attends
school, recommended the program and processed all the
paperwork for them. Each bike is tailored to a child’s specific
needs.
“There were a lot of different measurements they needed for
the bike,” says Margarite. “The physical therapist made all the
recommendations.”
They say Sebastian is very active at school, plays t-ball, and
excels at organized athletics. In a neighborhood where about a
dozen kids live on their street, they say he is enjoying his bike
immensely.
“Before he would kind of follow on foot and couldn’t really
keep up,” says Margarite. “Now, it’s like he’s one of the guys.”