Akron Life May 2022

AGENDA

S P O T L I G H T

by Brendan Baker

Family Matters

Tyler Erickson has a rare genetic disorder that affects his muscular and physical abilities, and he has been a wheelchair user his whole life. He is 8 years old and in the first grade at Lake Elementary School. In March, Serra Honda invited his family to its Akron dealership to present its new Honda Odyssey minivan, fully outfitted for wheelchair use by MobilityWorks in Akron. It was a celebra tion of a community com ing together to help a family.

Serra Honda stepped up to help Tyler Erickson, who has a rare genetic disorder, and his family get into a new accessible van. It was fully outfitted for wheelchair use by MobilityWorks. His family, his Lake Elementary School teachers and the staff at Serra Honda celebrated a great moment with Tyler at the dealership.

“We decided to help when we saw the family’s special needs,” says Tom Flory, executive manager of Serra Honda. One of Tyler’s school administrators, Jennifer Madsen, who works with fami lies in need, reached out to Flory and sales manager Andy Hetler for help after another dealership backed out. “We brought them in, sat with Tyler and the Erickson family and just decided that it was something our team wanted to get behind,” says Flory. “We actually got them out of their current van and put them in a brand new Honda Odyssey. And we took care of the pretty expensive handi cap conversion.” Up until recently, Tyler used a manual wheelchair, and the family had been lifting it by hand into their vehicle. “We decided to get a power wheelchair, and it’s been great. It’s given him much more indepen dence,” says Tyler’s mom, Michelle Erickson. But when the family decided to upgrade Tyler’s wheelchair, they faced a dilemma. The chair was too big and heavy to load by hand. They needed ramps and a way

to lock the chair down inside. Tyler’s dad, Leif Erickson, says the new chair is great, and they have ramps installed in their house, but he didn’t realize how heavy elec tric wheelchairs are. “We knew we had to do something because we had an SUV. So we reached out to the school to ask if they knew of anyone who had a van,” he says. “And that led us to MobilityWorks in Akron, who said we would probably want something newer.” According to Leif, doing a conversion costs almost as much as a new van (about $35,000). “We thought if we invest the money into converting our vehicle, and

then it breaks, it’s not something you can move to another vehicle. It’s permanent. And then we were invited to meet with the Serra folks. They were fantastic.” Flory says being able to help the Erickson family is what it is all about. “This trig gered us to say, Let’s do something big in the community every quarter ,” he says. “We’ve reached out to all of our associates because they’re all involved in different community things and charity things. Then we’ll pick something every quarter to get behind.”

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