OLDSMAR, Fla. — Over the past decade, the nonprofit organization Wheelchairs 4 Kids has distributed more than 1,200 chairs to families across Tampa Bay. These wheelchairs are made possible through community donations.
This week they held one of their biggest fundraisers of the year, the Kimberly Knorr Memorial Celebrity Golf Tournament, at the East Lake Golf Club.
More than 130 golfers, including 35 celebrities, weren’t just playing for a great score but for a great cause.
“Later, I’ll probably tear up because it’s seeing them not be able to do what we’re able to do, to be able to have this opportunity, everyone donates, to be able to get them some new wheelchairs,” said Toby Hall, retired Tampa Bay Ray.
For 12-year-old Malachi Kuhn, it's been a long wait, years of pleading with the family’s insurance company for a larger chair.
“He’s been in the same chair since he was five years old,” said mother Camden Kuhn. “And I got sick of fighting, so I called Wheelchairs 4 Kids, and I’m so amazingly grateful for them.”
“I can go faster in it because it’s got bigger wheels,” said Kuhn.
Then there’s 10-year-old Brynlee Burt, who didn’t have the energy to wheel her old chair by hand; now she has a motor.
“She fatigues very easily and quite often we have to turn around and come home, or we can’t go to events at all, or she just chooses not to go because she just gets so tired and this way, she can actually go and enjoy it,” said mother Tara Burt.
They saved the biggest surprise for last, a wheelchair-accessible van for 17-year-old Dillon Friddle.
This donation was made possible thanks to Wheelchair Transport Services.
“The world as bad as it’s getting and everything nowadays, and it’s like a lot of people only care about themselves, but it makes you realize there are still people out there that look out for others,” said mother Lora Friddle.
These celebrities will be the first to tell you; it’s these kids who were the real stars of this event.
