SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio -- When something is easy to do, no matter how much time has elapsed since once has last performed that task, it's often said that it's "like riding a bike, you never forget."
The comparison in that saying is understood by almost all -- but perhaps not quite all. There are some who never have learned how to ride a bike, especially those with disabilities.
The iCan Bike program, now in session at Notre Dame College, aims to make sure all can better understand the above statement by teaching those with mental and physical disabilities to ride a bike.
"When you're raising a family, there are so many challenges," said Rob Fellinger, co-director with Deena Bennett of the local iCan Bike program. "This is something, teaching a child with a disability to ride a bike, that you don't always get around to."
"It's a right of passage for all kids," said Cleveland Heights' Bennett, of learning to ride. "All kids want to do it. This program makes it possible."
Notre Dame College has donated use of its gym and parking lot for the program for the fourth straight year. For one week, 25 disabled children are learning, step by step, to negotiate on a bike.
The iCan Bike system, used at camps throughout the country, involves the use of eight special sets of rollers. The rollers replace the regular back tire of the bike. The rider starts off with a roller that makes it easy to stay balanced when riding. Each set thereafter makes the rider more responsible for balancing.
Volunteers -- about 60 signed up to work at Notre Dame, including college and high school students -- run alongside the campers, making sure they stay on their bikes. The goal, by the end of the fifth day, is to have a camper ride outside the gym, in the lot, on a bicycle with a regular tire affixed to the back of the bike.
Participants must be at least eight years of age, have a disability, and be ambulatory.
"We have about an 86-percent success rate," said Shaker Heights' Megan McMahon. "The national rate is about 80 percent."
McMahon credits the local volunteers for the higher rate of success. Even those who don't quite learn to ride get started on the right path and are encouraged to continue practicing at home.
This year, McMahon is serving as a volunteer, guiding the children through the gym. But it was her work four years ago that brought the program to South Euclid.
"I had a then 8-year-old son with cerebral palsy," McMahon explained. "It was spring and he was with the other neighborhood children when they decided to ride their bikes. He came home in a hum-drum mood and said he was going into the basement to play video games."
Because her son, Kevin, could ski, McMahon thought there was no reason the boy couldn't learn to ride a bike. She heard about iCan Bike from a friend and went to work with the national organization to meet criteria to open a camp here.
After being turned down by other institutions, her cold calls to Notre Dame College paid off when the college offered its facilities.
"The first year, we had practically no volunteers," she said. "I was asking people in the hallways to help and the coaches asked their players to help us."
She asked Fellinger, of Pepper Pike, and later found Bennett, a retired teacher with the Cuyahoga County Board of Developmental Disability. Kevin McMahon can now ride a bike and comes to camp to encourage others in their efforts to do so.
Fellinger and Bennett became co-directors, handling registration, funding and organizing. They formed a partnership with the non-profit Achievement Center, allowing for those who donate to get tax credits.
Bennett describes the tears in the eyes of parents, who accompany and sit watching their children from the gym stands, when they see their children for the first time riding a bike. One such happy parent is from Olmsted Falls.
"He was anxious when we were coming here the first day," said Meg DiFilippo of her son Dominic. "He didn't think he could ride without training wheels."
Dominic became one of the first two children in the camp, by the end of the third day, to venture into the parking lot on a bike with two wheels. Meg DiFilippo said she could see the gained confidence in her son, who will now be able to participate in family bike rides.
Julie Farley's daughter, Carmen, is 15 and has Down syndrome.
"I think it's a little more challenging for her because she's 15, a little older than the other kids," said Farley, of North Royalton. "I think this will be very good for her, to gain some independence and confidence because she'll be able to do what the other kids do. I'm proud of her."
The cost to attend the camp is $250 per child, but as Fellinger said, "Cost is never an issue. We'll work something out. If somebody has $50, we'll find a way to get that other $200. We just ask that (parents) contribute something."
The only thing that can keep a child out of camp is the waiting list. Fellinger said that list is already at about 20 youngsters for next year's camp.
For information about volunteering, contact Fellinger at firstname.lastname@example.org. For information about the program, visit iCanBike.org.
People such as Fellinger, Bennett, McMahon and others devoted to the program see helping youngsters learn to ride a bike as being just like riding a bike -- they never forget.