84-year-old Navy veteran, and Ford retiree, Kenny Jary raised enough donations to fund a foundation to provide free scooters for other veterans in need.

Kenny Jary, who lives near St. Paul Minnesota is coping with terminal lung cancer and donors have once again flocked to a GoFundMe page intended to help him with medical, hospice and funeral expenses. 

As of a week ago, donors had contributed more to the fund called Help Patriotic Kenny Receive the Care He Deserves. 

Any funds not used for his care will be transferred to the Patriotic Kenny Foundation to purchase mobility scooters, according to an online post by Amanda Kline, Jary’s friend and neighbor who launched both donation drives.

Kline, who is vice president and executive director of the foundation, declined to be interviewed for this article, referring Stars and Stripes to information posted on Jary’s social media accounts. The foundation’s most recent federal income tax return indicates it spent $73,926 to provide 49 free scooters to veterans in 2024

Jary, who served aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Okinawa as a helicopter refueler in the early 1960s, has about 3 million followers on TikTok and almost a million on Instagram.

https://www.instagram.com/patriotickenny

https://www.patriotickenny.com/

https://www.tiktok.com/@patriotickenny

https://www.youtube.com/@patriotickenny

an electric wheelchair fits inside and under a recliner. FYI

 

Founded in 2007 by Marine Corps veteran Steve Danyluk, the Independence Fund's Trackchair program has aided over 2,700 wounded veterans

More than 2,700 all-terrain Track Chairs were delivered to double, triple and quadruple amputees, the Independence Fund has said. The initiative gave freedom back to wounded veterans of Iraq, Afghanistan and even Vietnam, allowing them to hunt, fish and go off-road with their families.

Specialized all-terrain trackchairs are engineered to navigate challenging terrain including, snow, mud, and dirt, these mobility devices enable Veterans to reenter the outdoors and engage in the activities they enjoy.

https://independencefund.org/pages/mobility-program

I posted about this a couple years ago... I owe it a repeat https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-independence-fund-nonprofit-that.html

seen crossing an intersection downtown San Diego today

 

Nice... it tool me a 2nd look to understand what it is

 https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1078917777167318&set=gm.1281648613110962&idorvanity=226675368608297

there are still really great people doing incredible things out there, but they rarely get publicity. I do try to rectify that... and at least annually post the latest coolest stuff they've made at Magic Wheelchair

https://www.magicwheelchair.org/

a fun mobility scooter revenge caper? I bet this is going to be hoot!

“Thelma”, an unlikely action-comedy starring June Squibb as a widow grandmother who becomes a phone scam victim

Thelma, a widow being looked after and checked in on by her slacker grandson, who is depressed at not being able to get anything like a proper job. 

When she is scammed out of $10,000 by a fraudster on the phone, tough Thelma sets out to track the bad guy down, riding a mobility scooter borrowed from her gentleman admirer – an excellent performance from the late Richard Roundtree(Shaft). Clark Gregg and Parker Posey are in it too! 

“Thelma” is already Magnolia’s highest-grossing narrative feature in the company’s 23-year history. Magnolia’s had no film gross more than $1 million since “Shoplifters” (2018/$3.3 million).

https://www.theguardian.com/film/article/2024/jul/15/thelma-review-june-squibb-richard-roundtree#img-1

made his own electric wheelchair it looks like

 

A 2019 settlement mandated the city Department of Transportation to survey and fix any street that didn’t have adequate access for sidewalk ramps at every corner. Believe it or not, the city blames the quarantine, when no one was out interfering in transportation construction. That was 3 years ago

The discovery of ramp-free locations that were not previously identified, along with pandemic-driven construction delays, officials say, have combined to push back the completion dates agreed to in a 2019 settlement. Two class-action lawsuits had charged the city with not making streets and sidewalks accessible to people with disabilities, a condition the city may not be able to fulfill for years.

The delays are spelled out in the Department of Transportation’s July “transition plan,” which details how the agency has completed a survey of 217,678 pedestrian ramps at approximately 134,000 corners in the city. There are approximately 185,000 corners citywide, according to an August progress report of the pedestrian ramp program.

A little more than 40,000 ramps have been revamped or installed.

Several disability rights organizations sued the city in 1994 and again in 2014 over sidewalk ramps that were missing, inaccessible or lacking tactile warning surfaces for people with visual impairments.

As part of the settlement just four years ago, the DOT says it used high definition, street-level imagery and mobile light-detection and ranging technology to survey every street corner and determine which ones need curb cuts installed or repaired.

But DOT records show that the survey, completed in October 2019, also turned up additional locations that lacked ramps but were not on the agency’s list of known corners

New York City’s commitments to accessibility upgrades are also lagging in other cases. THE CITY reported last month that the Taxi and Limousine Commission missed a June 30 deadline for making half of the 13,587 yellow taxis accessible to wheelchair users — after initially blowing a 2020 deadline set nearly a decade earlier.

https://www.thecity.nyc/2023/10/12/23913434/city-moving-slow-on-curb-ramps-at-every-corner

I'm shocked I haven't seen this until now, but wow, what an incredible idea to include other kids. Genius. Coolest thing I've seen in weeks

Cool news to share with you

The New York Yankees and Matbock presented Army Veteran Bryon "Pete” Sutherland with an all-terrain trackchair at their game last night.

Sutherland was in the Army from 94 to 96, and he reentered the Army following 9/11. He deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom with 2/5 Cav, 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 1st Cavalry Division in March of 2004. 

In April 2004 while on patrol to rescue soldiers pinned down under heavy gunfire in Sadr City, he took gunshot wounds to both legs from enemy fire, ending his military career, and received a Purple Heart.

Having an all-terrain trackchair will give Sutherland the opportunity to “navigate the extreme terrain located on his property and hunt, opportunities that are unavailable to him in a traditional wheelchair.”

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=676228621198172&set=a.377856167702087

ever heard of Morgan's Wonderland in San Antonio? those with disabilities enter for free. The theme park isn't just for people with disabilities, it's for everyone, but it was built by Morgan's dad to focus on being ultra inclusive for the disabled

In 2006, Gordon Hartman observed his daughter, Morgan, who has Tatton-Brown-Rahman syndrome, a rare genetic disease, wanting to play with other vacationing kids at a hotel swimming pool, but the kids were leery of Morgan and didn’t want to interact with her. 

Then and there, Gordon resolved to create opportunities and places where those with and without disabilities can come together for fun and a better understanding of one another. On April 10, 2010, Morgan’s Wonderland became the world’s first theme park designed with individuals with special needs in mind.

Hartman started on a quest to create a space where no one felt left out. He had experience as a builder and enlisted help from other experts to turn his dream into what is now Morgan's Wonderland.

The park, opened in 2010, is believed to be the only one like it in the world and it has expanded to a sports center and camp with an outdoor adventure park. 

In 2017, the Ultra-Accessible™ theme park opened it’s expansion, Morgan’s Inspiration Island, which was named on the 2018 “World’s Greatest Places” list by TIME Magazine.

The park with an 8 acre lake is circled by a super small train, and it has a Ferris wheel, zip lining and even a water park – all fully accessible.

And for people who can't get their electric wheelchairs wet, Hartman and his team have a solution. "We have a wheelchair valet," said Hartman. "You go from your wheelchair to a wheelchair that has been specially built to the size that you need and if you're in a battery-operated wheelchair, we actually give you a nomadic wheelchair, which works off compressed air. It works underwater."

https://morganswonderland.com/

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/morgans-wonderland-accessible-theme-park-gordon-hartman-san-antonio/

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/the-uplift-a-wonderland-and-a-painted-buffalo/

the president of an Elvis fan club, had cerebral palsy, but was still the financial provider for his parents - because he was damn smart, and a hard working fan club president. Elvis gifted him a 57 Chevy partly as the payment for handling Elvis fan mail!

Gary Pepper would look every morning through the local papers and cut out articles that mentioned local business. These companies would pay Gary for the articles he'd find. 

After Gary read that Mrs. Presley had started a scrapbook for Elvis, he started providing her with clippings that mentioned Elvis. Gary had cerebral palsy, but he was self-supporting in running his own business.

His kindnesses led to a solid friendship between Gary and Mrs. Presley. The whole family became close with Gary, and Elvis bought for Gary, his mother and his nurse, a house on Dolan drive, and for xmas 1964, a new wheelchair. Elvis hired Gary's father, Sterling Pepper, to work as a gate guard at Graceland.

You can read an article Gary wrote about a concert Elvis did in the 70s at https://elvicities.com/~eip/august-1969/reviews-by-fans-1/by-gary-pepper/

Sadly, their was a squabble over the things that Gary left to his nurse in his will, because his parents wanted to profit off selling the numerous Elvis items that Gary had received from Elvis himself. The court ruled in the nurse's favor of course, iaw Gary's directive

Among the keepsakes Presley gave Pepper were a gold jumpsuit, a lock of hair, a 1957 Chevy, and autographed photos of Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable, according to a complaint filed by Pepper's heirs.

Pepper and Whitehead attended Elvis' funeral, and Presley's father gave each of them a white rose from the casket

During his life, Presley paid Pepper for maintaining the fan club and also asked his friend Carl Nichols to find a nurse to look after Pepper, who suffered from cerebral palsy. Nichols approached devoted Elvis fan and nurse Nancy Pease Whitehead, who immediately took the job - although it was unpaid - and eventually moved into Pepper's home abutting Graceland's backyard.

Nancy also testified that Pepper told her he did not want his relatives, who were not close to him during his life and were not Elvis fans, to have the collection

 'Given this evidence, a reasonable jury could find that Gary wanted the collection to be owned and maintained by a friend who shared his love of Elvis, who had taken care of him and his mother for years, who recognized the significance of the collection, and who would keep the collection unless and until he asked her to return it', the 10-page opinion concluded.

When it did sell, in 2009, it went for 250k

"To Gary thank you for the beautiful bible your friend Elvis Presley" in blue ballpoint pen. 

Gary had given Elvis a bible when Gladys invited Gary and his wife to the 1957 Graceland Christmas party.

https://www.elvis.com.au/presley/elvis-presley-and-gary-pepper.shtml

https://www.facebook.com/groups/158613514209975?multi_permalinks=9238316682906234&hoisted_section_header_type=recently_seen

https://www.elvis.com.au/presley/an-elvis-fan-wins-gary-pepper-collection.shtml

http://preslaw.info/estate-of-pepper-v-whitehead-2015

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/03/09/judges-elvis-fans-heirs-have-no-claim/24677693

https://www.gottahaverockandroll.com/Elvis_Presley_Signed_and_Inscribed_Christmas_Album-LOT5922.aspx

I am amazed, these are genius. Art on things with wheels, two of my favorite things... how have I never seen these until now? Izzy Wheels, because until now wheelchair users have had no choice in the appearance of their equipment.

  Irish sisters who grew up in a beautiful Irish seaside city have created something incredible, and collaborated with over 100 famous award-winning illustrators, artists and fashion designers, and brands from around, and companies like Disney, Barbie, Marvel, and Hello Kitty to make terrific wheel cover designs, and expand their line while at the same time, raising money for disability charities.

 In 2016 Ailbhe, who was studying at The National College of Art and Design, chose to design a range of removable wheel covers that matched her sister's colorful style. The idea was inspired by Izzy who was born with Spina Bifida.

Izzy Wheels has since won eight national awards, are now selling in 30 countries, and were named on Forbes 30 Under 30.

 

"What’s also been exciting is discovering other communities of people online who share this same positive relationship with their mobility equipment. We are contacted by lots of people who felt inspired by us to decorate their walking frames, canes and prosthetic limbs with art. Schools have even started doing art workshops with their students to design wheel art, inspired by our work."

https://www.izzywheels.com/

https://www.instagram.com/izzywheels/

https://www.vogue.co.uk/article/izzy-wheels-founder-interview

https://www.forbes.com/profile/izzy-wheels/?sh=49d6af8b28d0

https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/04/pimp-my-ride/

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sisters-start-izzy-wheels-company-to-create-designer-wheelchair-covers/

PSA, please pass it on

Rosa May Billinghurst, the suffragette who used her wheelchair to charge police officers during protests.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ColorizedHistory/comments/wgy92y/rosa_may_billinghurst_the_suffragette_who_used/

the Burning Man Lamplighters

Founded by Dale Huntsman as Hot Wheelz Camp sometime around 2000, Mobility Camp is a volunteer-led group within Burning Man that makes camping, an essential part of the experience, more accessible. The group provides charging stations for medical equipment and one of the few accessible transport vehicles—a 1940s Gibson tractor and trailer decorated to match that year’s creative theme—to the art installations scattered across the desert.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/burning-man-shows-how-riotous-festival-can-be-accessible

Lady Waterford had something a lot nicer than a wheelchair, though she did have to smell a lot of donkey farts

https://picryl.com/media/lady-waterford-84a9d7

maybe he was just fed up with trying to get a taxi capable of handling wheel chairs, or maybe he escaped from the nursing home, but he decided to head toward the valley on Interstate 163, like he has zero fucks to give

when I spotted him in the distance, I wondered what the hell am I seeing? 

"made for Holy Roman Empress Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, 1740."

 https://tywkiwdbi.blogspot.com/2021/12/wheelchair-1740.html

https://www.reddit.com/r/ArtefactPorn/comments/rfglob/wheelchair_made_for_holy_roman_empress_elisabeth/