Mona Drolc is the Vice President of Ups of Downs Family Support Group, Black Hills Buddy Walk Director, Head Coach for Rapid City Special Olympics Young Athletes Program, instructs STRIDER Camp classes for kids of all abilities, and is a proud supporter of Strider Bikes! Mona is our guest blogger today, the photo below is Mona with her son David. 

As I sit watching David at swimming lessons, I think back to the day in December of 2006 when we received the phone call, I remember, like most, thinking our world had just completely ended. After talking to the doctors and seeing all the reports, we thought – wow can we do this? A couple weeks passed and as we were coming home from church one Sunday morning, I took Dennis’ hand, gave a squeeze, smiled, and said to him “Everything is going to be okay”, his response was “How do you know that?” I smiled again and said “God just told me” — I took a big deep breath and said to myself “let the journey begin”

Now here we are 7 yrs later with David doing awesome. We have had our bumps along the way, our struggles but have seemed to keep moving along. David has finished 1st grade, did wrestling again this year, completed gymnastics, just finished his first year of t-ball(batter batter as he calls it)and now is doing Young Athletes and swimming. YA has taught him so many valuable wonderful skills including learning how to ride a bike. Strider bikes were introduced to the class and at each class he just got better and better. The skills learned at YA and from Strider bikes has given him confidence, he is not afraid to participate with others, wants to be the coach to help his friends learn how to ride, and changed his attitude towards riding a regular bike as he has transitioned to riding a pedal bike without training wheels.

He has a strong healthy attitude for life and instead of saying “I can’t” – it is “no give up, I can do”. On Saturdays when it is time for YA, he says “it’s Strider time” and away we go. We were told David will never out grow Down syndrome but what we do will make his life either fulfilling or not; so what we need to do is give him every opportunity to succeed.  Watching him swim, ride bike, or play with his friends are just some of the things we are doing to make that happen.

We know it is our responsibility to make a difference in his life and giving him every opportunity to succeed is what counts. God told me everything was going to be okay and right now, I have to agree as David’s successes are pretty amazing which include winning the first ever Unified Strider US Championship race in June!

If you are interested in participating in STRIDER Camp in Rapid City, South Dakota, or if you would like to host your own camp please contact [email protected] or visit https://striderbikes.ca/special-needs-bikes for more information. 

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