Georgia Power Initiative Donates Custom Adaptive Bikes to Children Across Georgia

At Wellspring Wellness Center in Houston County, Georgia, physical therapist Beth Bryan uses a variety of one-on-one pediatric physical, occupational, and speech therapies to empower her patients and their families to move past the day-to-day management of disabilities and into the future with confidence.

But for some of her patients, Bryan recommends using adaptive bikes in addition to traditional therapies.

Physical benefits Bryan sees from her patients using adaptive bikes are undeniable, ranging from increased range of motion, strength, head control, reciprocal movement of the legs, and endurance, as well as improved cardiovascular and gastrointestinal health. But the benefits of adaptive bikes go far beyond the physical for Bryan's patients.

"The biggest thing I've seen with the bikes is in how the kids perceive themselves," Bryan said. "Their confidence grows just because they're able to do something that they've never been able to do before that is considered normal for kids. It just helps them have that confidence and just feel normal and do something normal."

Despite the undisputable health benefits, there are many cases in which insurance may not cover adaptive bikes for Georgians with disabilities. Consequently, Wellspring Wellness Center has a long waiting list of children who would benefit from the use of adaptive bikes, but can't afford the significant cost, each bike ranging from $4,500 to $5,000. 

So in 2021, Georgia Power employees teamed up with Freedom Concepts, which has 30 years of experience designing adaptive bikes for children with disabilities, and Wellspring Wellness Center to identify candidates to receive a donated, customized bike. Following a consultation in which Jaydeen Lowe, a sales representative for Freedom Concepts, measures the patient and determines what specifications their bike will need, she and Bryan match children from Bryan's waiting list to Georgia Power's employee volunteer groups, also known as Citizens Chapters, who want to donate a bike. Freedom Concepts then provides the bikes at a discounted rate and ships the bikes partially assembled to Georgia Power employees who assemble the bikes ahead of formal presentations with the recipients and their families.

Lowe attends each bike presentation to examine the bike post-assembly and help Bryan perfectly fit each bike to each child.

"Something relatively small like this can really make a huge change, not just in the child's life and physicality, but in their family in their mental health and their wellbeing," Lowe said. "It's definitely more than just a bike."

In the initiative’s three years, Georgia Power Citizens Chapters have assembled and donated 25 bikes, five of those in 2024, to children with disabilities across the Valdosta, Macon, Alpharetta, and Augusta areas.

Before teaming up with Georgia Power, Bryan raised money through raffles and donations to buy bikes for her patients, and before that, in the corporate hospital system, securing an adaptive bike for a child with disabilities was nearly impossible.

"I've been a physical therapist since 2008 and I worked in the corporate hospital system up until Wellspring opened in 2020 and in all those years, I had one kid get a bike," Bryan said. "There's so much red tape. We would apply for all these different grants and still, the request just sat there. By joining Georgia Power, we're able to get the bikes much, much quicker. Even though there's still a waiting time, these families have waited so long that they don't mind waiting a little bit longer."

Georgia Power employee Crystal, who works in medical and health management, pitched the idea for the initiative after her daughter, Madison, who has cerebral palsy, received a donated bike through Wellspring Wellness Center in 2021. The bike — which Madison still uses since it was designed to fit her as she finished growing — changed Madison's life, according to her mom.

"The bike built up her muscles and legs and we've seen 75 percent improvement in her strength," Crystal said. "I'm not saying it healed her, but you can just see the difference. A child that doesn't get that exposure of being outdoor and independent, doesn't have the same result."

The joy and hope evident in each presentation ceremony, the most recent in November in middle Georgia, proves why Georgia Power plans to continue working with Wellspring Wellness Center and Freedom Concepts.

"When you see these kids get these bikes for the first time, their faces it lights up the whole world," Crystal said. "My daughter says all the time, 'It's not a disability, it's an ability if you put your mind to it.' And honestly, the bike gave her that ability."

For more information on how to donate or information on scheduling an appointment for a child in your life, visit Wellspring Wellness Center's website. To learn more about adapted bikes, visit Freedom Concepts' website.