Keyport-Matawan Elks Will Surprise Boy With Bike This Saturday

ABERDEEN, NJ — Jacob's bike is on its way! Earlier this spring, Patch wrote about a single mom in Cliffwood who was desperate to win a specially-designed bike for her son, Jacob, 10, who has cerebral palsy. She contacted Patch and asked us to share a link to online voting for the bike. Once we did that, the votes started pouring in; after several past years of trying unsuccessfully to win the bike, Jacob won the bike in mid March.

And now the Van Raam EasyRider, Jr. is on its way! The bike will be delivered to their home this Saturday, mom Bernadette Richmond tells Patch. When the Keyport-Matawan Elks Lodge heard about Jacob's story, they offered to help Richmond assemble the bike, and they will be doing that on Saturday.

To make the delivery even more special, the Elks will be hand-delivering the bike to Jacob's home. They plan to show up with police sirens and on motorcycles Saturday at 3 p.m. and surprise Jacob with it.

"Being that Jacob has been going through severe bullying at school, they want to make him feel extra special," said Richmond. "They told me to listen for sirens. I'm so excited."

Once the word got out, someone in the community also found out that Jacob needed a new pair of glasses, and bought him some, she said.

"I can't thank you enough for what you did," said Richmond, 46. "If it was not for the Patch, we wouldn't have won. This story spread as far as Florida and Canada. All week long I've been getting emails from people saying they voted and asking how they could help. Monmouth County and the Patch made this go viral."

It also helped that the Keyport-Matawan Elks shared Jacob's Patch story on Facebook, and got hundreds of Elks organizations across the U.S. to re-share the post. They asked each Elks chapter across the United States to vote for Jacob. That was how he won.

Richmond first contacted Patch on Feb. 23. A Cliffwood resident for the past 20 years, she relayed that her son Jacob has cerebral palsy, walks with adaptive braces and cannot ride a bike. The Van Raam EasyRider, Jr. was created for children with stability issues, and every year one such bike is given away in an online contest called The Great Bike Giveaway. The bike normally retails for $3,980, something Richmond said she could never afford.

Richmond has entered this contest for the past four years now, but Jacob has never won enough votes in the past.

"On Saturday morning Jacob was in tenth place. Then by Saturday afternoon, he was in fourth place. Then on Sunday, he jumped to the number-one spot and stayed there ever since," said Richmond. "The company notified me Wednesday that voting was closing and that Jacob had won."

Richmond had to fill out a 1099 tax form declaring that the bike is a gift from the manufacturer, and provide a letter from Jacob's doctor, verifying that the boy does indeed have cerebral palsy.

The couple who started the Great Bike Giveaway, Adam Kaplan and Gabriella Burman, created the contest in honor of their daughter, Michaela, who had cerebral palsy. Tragically, she passed away. Every year, they try to give away multiple bikes to kids and teens with physical disabilities.

"When Jacob and I found out he won we were jumping up and down, crying," said Richmond.

Born at five months old

Jacob was born premature, at 25 weeks old, at Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch. He weighed only one pound when he was born. You can see photos of how small he was on his voting page: https://www.greatbikegiveaway....

"Originally they told us he would be fine. He just had to stay in the NICU for several months but that he was doing well," she said.

Then one day she came in to see him, and a nurse told her devastating news: He'd had an abnormal MRI. Jacob had experienced a severe brain bleed while in the NICU. The doctors diagnosed him with cerebral palsy and cautioned his parents that he would probably never be able to walk or talk.

However, Bernadatte took advantage of New Jersey's many early-intervention programs for kids with special needs, and "he started thriving."

Jacob began walking when he was five years old. She also was able to integrate him into the public school system. Jacob is in the sixth grade at Lloyd Road Elementary School in Aberdeen.

But balancing on a bike has always been difficult, if not impossible. This summer that will all change. He will now be able to pedal alongside his older brother and sister through the streets of Cliffwood.

The Van Raam EasyRider, Jr. allows children like Jacob to recline and push with his back, his mom said. There are straps to hold him in place and even the handle is adaptive, as Jacob has trouble with hand coordination.

"It seems simple, but you changed a little boy's life and I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart," his mother said.