CALEDONIA, Ill. (AP) – An all-terrain outdoor wheelchair is available for public use in northern Illinois.
Winnebago County is the first in the state to offer a battery-operated outdoor wheelchair to rent and use for free, the Rockford Register Star reported. Residents can borrow the wheelchair by making a refundable $50 deposit that’s returned when the wheelchair is brought back in the same condition.
Jeremy Oster of Rockton nonprofit Hononegah Archery worked with Access Ability Wisconsin to host the wheelchair. A $25,000 grant from the Friends of National Rifle Association helped cover the cost of the wheelchair and a trailer to haul it to different locations.
Oster said he can also accommodate residents in Boone and Ogle counties who want to borrow the chair.
“This area has plenty of people (with disabilities) who want to go hunting or just go out in the woods,” Oster said. “This gets them beyond the tree line.”
Rockford resident Jenna Hammerly, 29, was one of the first to test-drive the all-terrain outdoor wheelchair. Hammerly is a quadriplegic and reliant on a motorized wheelchair, which means she often has to wait on the sidelines when her daughter, Reagan, plays on the playground or her husband, Nick, hunts pheasant.
But this month, Hammerly borrowed the all-terrain wheelchair and took it for a ride deep into the Kinnikinnick Creek Nature Preserve. She used a Y-shaped joystick to navigate the Action Trackchairs outdoor wheelchair, which coasts on two triangular continuous tracks.
She said using the chair felt “liberating.”
“A lot of people with disabilities are below the poverty line; owning a wheelchair like this is not feasible,” Hammerly said. “Knowing it’s available and it’s free – that’s a game changer.”
Oster noted that the wheelchair isn’t exclusively for people with disabilities. He said, “If grandma and grandpa want to walk in the woods with their grandchildren, they can.”
