A group of teenagers have come together to build a shelter for a five-year-old wheelchair user after seeing him getting wet while waiting for the bus to school.
His name is Ryder Killam and he has had to battle against the harsh element; wind, rain and snow for 15 mins every day with just a patio umbrella for cover.
Local students in Bradford, Rhode Island, heard about his struggle and took it upon themselves to build Ryder his very own shelter at the end of his driveway as part of their construction lessons.
Tim, Ryder’s father said: “Ryder uses it every day before school and his nurses wait inside it every day while they await his return home.
“He does like to go hang out in it from time to time as his fort as well.
“This project brought out community together a bit, it showed that there is still so much good in this world and town!”
Ryder was born with myelomeningocele the worst type of spina bifida and has never been able to walk. He’s used a wheelchair since he was two years old.
Each morning Ryder’s parents would have to push him around 75ft to the end of the road to wait for the school bus.
Ryder is unable to rush for the school bus if he was running late so sometimes this meant him having to wait 15 minutes for it to arrive, no matter the weather.
This year Ryder started kindergarten, his dad decided to put up a patio umbrella to provide some sort of shelter for him.
“The problem is with the wind and fall weather here in New England it really didn’t accomplish much unless it was just a rainy day with no wind, otherwise he still would get wet and not stay warm.” he said.
His parents hated this so they decided to reach out to see if anyone in the community had something to help protect Ryder from the elements.
Marine electronics company owner Tim said: “I placed a post on Facebook looking to see if one of my friends or one of their connections might have an old bus hut.
I see them here and there on people’s property and figured maybe someone had one and had grown children that might not need it anymore.
“After the post, a WPS member suggested I reach out to the construction class at Westerly High and see if they would want to take on the project of building Ryder a bus stop hut.”
Tim got in contact with the school’s construction teacher who replied with an ‘absolutely’ and began to work with his students to design/build the hut.
“Ryder’s first reaction was ‘Holy Cow!’, he loved it and wants to hang out in it all the time.”
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