Alabama's STEM explorers is made possible by the generous support of the Holy Family Foundation established to honor the legacy of Brigadier General Everett Holly and his parents, Evelyn and Fred.

Holly, Champions of servant leadership, science, technology, engineering, math, all coming up right now on Alabama STEM Explorers.

Hi.

Welcome to Alabama STEM Explorers.

My name's Mitch, and I'm here today in with my new friends, Coach Echols and Mr. Graham.

So tell you what we're going to be doing today, where we're going to build a bike for a young child with a disability.

And this is called a 1410, which is based on the size of the wheels, referring to where a two, three, four year old.

Okay, So, yeah, let's start building it.

All right.

Your first this is your frame and you're going to put your seat bracket on there first.

Okay.

So I guess this in turn the other way.

Here you go.

Yep.

Slide on.

There ain't good.

And I didn't matter where it is right now.

Okay, so then we're going to stand it up and you can put the back chassis on there.

Okay?

So this thing, if I go this way, I set.

All right, now you run the screws through the holes to keep it stable.

Okay, so through these holes here, if to line them up, you get them lined up.

And while they're working on that I'm Graham Sisson the Executive Director with the governor's office on disability and I've been a person with a disability since 1982.

I was 17 years old.

I was in the back seat of a car.

My own neighborhood and a drunk driver came from another county and hit us head on.

And I was in the back seat.

My back was broken in half.

And so I became instantly, became paralyzed from the waist down, and also had a head injury and was in a coma for eight and a half weeks.

So today, this is very important to me.

I think it's very significant.

It's an opportunity to expand opportunities for people with disabilities and to to let them have the chance to be included in activities like outdoor bicycling is is a major activity and it's fun.

People with disabilities want to have fun like anyone else.

So and when you think people with disabilities and opportunities changes in the way things are made where they're universally designed, universal design means that anybody can use anybody can use one of these bikes, but it's made so that people disabilities can also enjoy the same freedom, can feel their air blown through their hair.

You know, I don't know how fast his bike will go, but I'm sure it will go faster probably than your average wheelchair.

So so this is a great opportunity.

And tell me.

So I'm enjoying watching them putting this together and it seems fairly simple to put it together.

They get pretty basic tools and looks like Mitch hadn't even use a tool yet, so he just using his hands and those are probably the best tools.

But again, this is a great a great thing.

And I applaud for making these available.

And certainly it had I had the opportunity to use one of these.

I would have loved to use them.

I had a in bike myself that had three wheels and it had a set of foot controls.

It had the opportunity to use your hands and steer with your hands and also propel at the same time.

So yeah, we make bikes with that are strictly propelled by hands or hand and leg or just leg, depending on what the child's disability is.

And as far as how far as far as you go, as far as how fast they go, depends on the child.

You know, some of the bikes will come.

This one comes with rear steering.

So if the child can't do it all by themselves, the parent can help.

Generally what happens is when the child first started riding, the parents help, but their life is so much stronger, they're able to pedal by themselves and then the rear steering is more for control so they don't go too fast.

Yeah.

And then you tighten up is the most people have down wrenches.

They don't realize what they're for, but they're pretty simple tools to use it.

We found these long stem ones and it just makes it so much easier to to maneuver.

Just kind of give you a little background of how I got here.

I was a coach by trade and I was looking for what I wanted to do when I retired.

And my oldest son is an amputee and I was the CEO, now an amputee, and never rode a bike.

So when they asked me to take this over, I was like, first I got to loosen these here and loosen those.

And you to put this on like that.

Okay.

And he never rode a bike.

So I this is an opportunity for me to help a child run a bike.

The my son didn't get to do wish I had known about this when my son was growing up.

And when I first started, I said I would do it for six months.

And once you watch families get the bikes and see that it changes their life a little more in just riding a bike, it's a social, emotional.

So a little bit of everything.

For now, the whole family can go out and do something together.

We kind of take for granted that our children ride bikes and it's a family activity, but this gives them an opportunity to be part of what the family does.

So it's really been a I don't know how to describe it, but a big change for me.

I mean, coaching was second nature.

To me, this has been a little more challenging, but yet more rewarding because you get to see the impact you could make on the families.

So will I put this directly?

Yes, Yes.

Here, take after take off, shoes off and then put that plate on.

All right.

Sounds good.

Then the plate slides down here and we see But where are all these parts made for the bicycle.

And right now most of the parts are made in Taiwan and China.

So they literally come here on a slow boat in China.

They are in the process of getting most of the parts made in Bicycle Corporation of America in South Carolina.

We partner with them so that we will start assembling a lot of the parts there and outsourcing as many things we can in the US.

But I think the frame itself will still be made in China, but they're going to have so many of them in stock that the perfect world is once we get past this back up and COVID, we will have a two week turnaround from the time we order a bike.

They just go just like like that.

And then you put them through the whole.

Yep, let's see if we can go in right there.

And once you get one, it's pretty easy.

So right now, because of COVID, we have some real issues of back orders.

We've just started.

We had some bikes away to six months to get where we got 50 bikes in the last two weeks.

So we're building as fast as we can.

We we have just in the last two years gotten to where we're giving out 100 bikes a year.

And so as soon as we get enough funding, we order bikes.

This bike will probably cost us somewhere in the $550 range.

Some of these bikes behind us will cost right a thousand.

So we require the families to donate $100 and then we raise the rest of it.

And it's just kind of and if we get a family therapist tells us we don't you know, if the therapist tells us the family can't afford 100, it's not the money as much as just having skin in the game.

So they'll take better care of the bike.

Ideally, what happens is if a two or three year old gets this bike in about a year and a half, two years, they'll call back.

And so they've outgrown it because we can adjust the leg length somewhat and then we'll go up to the next size.

They'll turn that one in or recycle and get it ready to go out to another family and we'll get them a bigger bike.

So how do you get the screws in there?

All right.

Same way.

Just to advance a little bit, you probably get that too tight.

I would do it.

Yeah.

Loosen that first and then you can adjust it better.

You know, the first time you do it, it's always the hardest.

Mitch.

I don't know that I can tell that.

Yes, no doubt.

There we go.

That move now?

Yes.

Now, how do you reach out to the community to let people know about these good questions?

We have to have a physical therapist or an adaptive PE teacher prescribes the bike, basically.

So what'll happen is they'll get a child in the PE class or therapy somewhere.

And like most therapy centers in town and most school systems in town have our bikes and their PE programs and like Children's Hospital has them.

So there's their him in therapy.

And then when they feel like they're at a point they can ride him at home every day, they will prescribe the parents fill out an application.

The therapies do measurements to decide which bike they need, and then we order the bike.

When they ship it here, we build them and then we'll call the family up and like they'll meet here with a volunteer therapist and the family.

They'll meet here and we'll do a fitting and send them home with a bike.

Okay, So now it goes in here.

I pull that knob out right there.

Okay, Just pull it already loose.

Just pull it.

Pull out.

Pull it out.

You had a good night and can I take it back there?

That's cool.

All right, so let's get the break next and break this thing yep We have a break.

So when the child's getting on the bike, it's stable and not moving when they're trying to get on.

So it's going to go like or this part over here, it will go.

So you take it down.

So you are you gonna loosen these?

Use this here, loosen the screw there.

So now this is tightening.

You want to figure the height where when you close it down, it locks.

So.

Okay, tighten the screws out.

Why?

You tightened those, too.

And with this?

Yep.

Okay.

Usually as soon as we get one built, if we don't have an application, I'll let the therapist around town know we have some and I'll get an application pretty soon.

Yeah, we had our inbox actually started getting tighter.

Okay.

actually started in Birmingham 101 years ago.

Wow.

As a service organization.

And in the eighties, a physical therapist in Texas designed the first one of these bikes and it became such a hit that it started becoming a national deal where the chapters were funding the bikes.

So now basically they do scholarships.

It's not tied to scholarships and therapist.

We build wheelchair ramps, universal playgrounds and these bikes.

So the bikes are really with the core part of what they do.

But depending on the chapter and depending on the size of a town, a lot of towns is their service organization.

In the town was in Birmingham, we have Civitan.

So what where do you do most of the fundraising?

I beat on a lot of doors.

Quarterback Club is one of our biggest funders.

The Foundation is a big funder for us.

Beyond that, it's a lot of individuals that either are people I coached or people I know just have lunches and I ask people for funding.

You know, is fundraising is a labor of love, I can tell you.

But I'm blessed to have some really wonderful supporters that help us.

But that's our two main, main funders or quarterback club foundation.

So what's special about these bikes that makes them more compatible for people with disabilities?

All right.

So like once you put this rear steering on, you see, even though you can go to Walmart and get your tricycle, but they have more stability.

They've got the rear steering that has a the larger sizes have a break on it where they can actually help, but it helps the parents steer, helps to have control.

Most of the kids, the issues they have are stability.

So this is a pretty high functioning kid with this seat.

We make this same bike with a what's called a snappy seat and it'll have laterals ahead.

Rast So a lot more in inclusive type seat.

This we're going to keep them in.

This is the probably the I don't know how to describe it, but doesn't have many restrictions at all.

So this may be a kid with a kid.

This just has later developing.

But once you get to the kids with cerebral palsy, we're going to add a different seat.

So each of the bikes the therapist will order what kind of adaptations they need on that bike for that child.

So it's specifically made we need a child.

Last week, the fitting took us an hour and a half just to figure out how to make that bike work.

As he he needed laterals, they needed a knee separator so his legs wouldn't fall over.

So we our therapies create ways to make that kid be stable and be able to ride a bike.

All right.

So we're going next.

Let's go with our rear steer bar.

Okay.

This thing?

Yep.

All right.

So it's going to go.

So let's put it on.

We like it like that.

And grab that red pole there.

There it goes.

So hard to get off.

There you go.

All right, so how do I tighten?

Right?

So this will go like this.

And what's that for?

This is what connects it.

Where that rear steering bar can steer.

Oh, okay.

Okay.

I think you said that.

All right.

Oh, And just screw that on there.

It moves around.

Yep.

And then you get another one of those.

Same over there, same part over there that will test up on front.

Yep, that's up here.

Yep.

Okay, so what is one of What is one of these smaller bikes weigh?

This one's about?

I want to say it's about 45 lbs to the other one for anywhere from 80 to 100.

This is a new model.

There's actually only 20 of these anywhere in the country.

This is brand new.

We're getting to test drive one.

So I'm going to go to the Homewood School system and they're going to try and different schools and let the different sized kids try it.

So then we're going to get feedback and they're going to make the last adjustments.

So we got a mass production, but it's a lot lighter.

It's got some lighter components and it's going to have a wider range that it'll go from probably a kid ten all the way up to 20, whereas instead of having to get for size or cut and size out and I havent a mastered it yet, but that one you can take apart into three parts, so it'll fit in a car instead of having to have a truck or a large vehicle.

So, Mr. Graham, what have you been doing with the Governor's Office on Disabilities?

Well, we've been up to a few things, but in relationship, what we're working here on today is we're working on making our Alabama trails more accessible to people of all types abilities, including those with disabilities.

And one trail I'd like to really point out for its Universal design access is a trail, excellent trail system It is a model of accessibility.

And so we're working with other trails.

I have the also the honor of being the chair of the Alabama Trails Commission, and we're working on making a network of trails across the state.

And one of the things that we're emphasizing is accessibility and universal design.

So the other thing we're working on, too, you may have visited State Park.

We have beautiful state parks in Alabama.

And so we are working on making state parks very accessible.

And in one of the things we have in the state parks are our trails.

And we are we're debuting a track chair that looks like it looks like an electric wheelchair.

So to have wheels on the side, it has tank tracks and it's very easy to transfer in and out of, but it will be used by people who would mobility disabilities so they can get on the steeper trails and get where somebody is in a wheelchair can.

And I had the chance to see it demonstrated at Oak Mountain State Park, at the Trailhead.

In Trailhead, there's a small lake around it, and they've got a trail around that lake in this tractor can make it around that with no trouble at all.

It is one capable vehicle.

And so we hope to have with the right funding, have a tractor here at most of the major state parks.

So an individual with a disability much like this, universally designed, accessible, the first equipment we can have, those are tractors.

So recreation is very important.

You know, we all want to work.

We all want to have a good job.

But when we're not working or we're not in school, we can have recreation, we can have fun.

People with disabilities wants that.

What everybody else does in that area is have the opportunity to get outdoors, feel nature, see nature and propel themselves.

And this this is a great opportunity.

Much like the track chair, it would allow somebody with a disability get where they normally could not go.

So I really applaud for this creation.

This device looks very exciting.

And I'm watching it being built and I'm impressed at the ease which all the parts go together.

So and in fact, you don't need very many tools to do it either.

Yeah.

I mean, that's I love tools.

I'm a woodworker by hobby, and I have almost every power tool you can have to build stuff.

So we send the families home with these three tools.

So every family takes these home so they can make adjustments to pretty much anything that the kids loose without having to tool bag per se.

We just put a little bag and bigger bikes have baskets on the back and we'll just puts tools in the basket.

How?

Make it easy.

I'll turn it around.

Turn it around a little bit.

There you go.

Now, now, now, here to your point, one of the things that we ask our families when we give them a bike, we have a questionnaire and one of them is do you have a place to ride a bike?

So the more you can get trails and places where they can get like on bike trails or whatever they can get access on the road is just a little dangerous.

So the more trails we can have, the better it is.

Is that good enough?

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

So I'll turn it around.

I'll turn it.

Make it easy for you.

Now, this one that may go backwards.

The way you turn it goes all the same way.

This is such a tiny little bike.

So what age?

What?

What were you saying with that?

This would be a two, three, four year old.

For the most part.

We get a few five year olds on here, depending on.

They're really late developing this.

And then the next size will be anywhere from a four or five year old up to a ten year old.

So like with a setup process of like a average sized bike for like disabilities, what would it be like?

Like what would the body equate to like with just a normal bike for that same size?

Well, I do about the size of the tires.

Okay.

So this is a ten, 14, ten.

The next size is a 1412.

The one back here behind us is 14.

16.

We go up to 14 toes and then we have 1420 XL that are just huge bikes, really.

And the problem we have with some of the really big ones is they can't get them in.

You have to have a truck to transport it.

What else would happen if a string that you've got in your hand right there?

The purpose of a string.

A lot of these kids have a hard time keeping their feet level.

Okay.

It's own.

So the string.

Will tie Okay, grab it.

Grab the metal thing.

Oh, yeah.

All right.

If we catch her, we will come through here.

Take it through here.

Oh, okay.

I think I like tie on that pedal there and then.

Okay.

Right.

Yeah.

And then do you have to put this metal thing in?

Yeah.

And then we'll just turn it for now.

We adjust it once a child comes.

No, just like a pull it tight.

Keep, pull tighter.

Here you go.

That way the pedal will stay level.

So if a child has a hard time getting their foot, it makes your foot stay level over time.

Yeah, that's one of those.

Not you learn the Boy Scouts.

I have never been a Boy Scout, but I'm just going to tie one of these knots for now.

All right, then.

Last thing.

Grab that pin over there.

This pin.

So depending on my child, some kids get going pretty fast.

The danger is they get too excited and turn too hard.

We have this pen will fit in these holes depending on which hole you put it in.

They either have a little range of motion, no range of motion or full range of motion.

So that how you got it right there, that's as far as the child can steer.

If you change to another hole, put on the top and up there, well, good enough.

So now that's as far as the wheel return.

So just protection for a child is a little unruly and children are known sometimes.

Yes, aren't they?

Yes.

And of course, we get some children that are not as cognitively advanced.

So they need this because they all they know is they get excited.

So this way protects them a little bit.

Well, and that's our bike.

So are there weight limits through these bikes?

So yeah, the largest bike is up to about 275 lbs.

And we have different seats like a seat on that bike over there is one of our larger seats.

We've got one seat that's just a huge wide seat.

So if a child very overweight, we can adapt that.

So sometimes the bike will look like all the rest and we'll just change the seat out or so that's, that's the amazing thing about these bikes.

We can adapt it to pretty much anybody.

Well, this has been crazy.

This has been really fun building this bike and yeah, thank both of you guys so much for helping me and telling me all about this awesome work you guys are doing.

Thank you.

I'll see you next week on Alabama STEM Explorers.

When I was young, of course, I was a little too young to experience the moon landing firsthand, but I grew up knowing about it and being intrigued by the thought of going into space.

My fifth grade term paper was on Wernher von Braun and his German rocket team that came to Huntsville, Alabama.

So I guess you could say I was very interested early on.

I just did not realize that I could be a part of it until much later in life.

Well, I'm so happy to report that nowadays, much more so than when I was young.

The world is opened up and STEM is something that is very important across our nation.

People understand the influence that STEM education can have on developing people and on our nation as a whole and what it can do.

So more so than when I was growi more encouraged to pursue traditional careers.

Nowadays there's a lot more that's open and open up to everyone of all shapes, sizes and colors, whether you know, if you're interested in STEM or not.

Try it.

The best thing to do is to just talk to someone in that in that field or look into what's available.

But whatever you can dream and imagine, it can be yours.

So I just encourage everyone to pursue their passions, whatever makes them happy, whatever.

If they're given a blank assignment and they can pick something of their own choosing.

Think about that.

What do you choose and why?

And then once you do go into it further and see if there might be something in it that holds an interest for you.

Thanks for watching.

Alabama STEM Explorers, If you missed anything or you want to watch something again, you can check out our website at Frame of Minds dot org.

Maybe you have a STEM question we could answer here on the show and you might grab a cool T-shirt.

Feel free to send us a video question or email on our website.

Thanks again for watching.

We'll be back next week.

Alabama STEM explores is made possible by the generous support of the Holle Family Foundation established to honor the legacy of Brigadier General Everett Holle and his parents, Evelyn and Fred Holle, champions of servant leadership.