Patch Readers Helped Aberdeen Boy Win Bike Of His Dreams

ABERDEEN TOWNSHIP, NJ — Thank you, Patch readers! You helped a 10-year-old Cliffwood boy with cerebral palsy win the bike of his dreams this week.

Jacob's mom, Bernadette Richmond, wrote to Patch and said that after we published this article last Saturday, Jacob garnered enough votes to be selected as the contest winner in a bike giveaway.

"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."

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. She posted on Patch QuickPost, asking people to vote.

Richmond has entered this contest for the past four years now, but Jacob has never won enough votes. That all changed once we published her story last Saturday.

"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."

The company will not reveal how many votes each child received. All Richmond knows is that she 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. Every year, they try to give away multiple bikes to kids and teens with physical disabilities. Some of the bikes are donated by the individual bike companies and the rest are paid for by individual fundraising and crowd-fundraising.

"When Jacob and I found out he won we were jumping up and down, crying," said Richmond, who is a single mother. It also helped that after reading our story, hundreds of Elks organizations across the U.S. shared the post on Facebook, asking each chapter to vote for Jacob.

A member of the Keyport-Matawan Elks Lodge told Richmond he would come over and assemble the bike for her when it arrives.

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.

"All summer long he's been following his brother and sister as they ride their bikes," his mom said. "All he can do is run after them. He's been asking me for a bike for years. He doesn't have the muscle tone in the back of his legs to push a normal bike and we've tried strapping him to a normal bike. That doesn't work, either."

The Van Raam EasyRider, Jr. allows 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.

The bike will be delivered to her home in six to eight weeks, she said.

"Jacob still gets embarrassed he can't do many things like other kids can, but he overcomes a lot with his charm and charisma," his mother said.

Jacob wants to be a fashion designer when he grows up.

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

Past reporting: Help Cliffwood Boy With Cerebral Palsy Win Bike Of His Dreams

(His mother withheld his last name for privacy reasons.)