Disabled second-grader hoping to win wheelchair-accessible van online

As part of Mobility Awareness Month during May, an Arlington Heights family is asking for votes in an online contest that would win a wheelchair-accessible van for their second-grade daughter living with cerebral palsy.

Diane Berry said she entered the "Local Heroes" contest, run through the National Mobility Equipment Dealers Association, for her 8-year-old daughter Grace, who suffers with quadriplegia choreo-athetoid cerebral palsy and cannot do most things for herself.

Grace was born almost three months premature and had four surgeries in her first eight months of life. Despite her challenges, Grace is in a regular second grade class in Arlington Heights, is a member of a local Brownie troop and a cheerleader.

"As she gets older and bigger, transporting her is becoming increasingly more difficult. Our minivan has not been converted in any way, so Grace needs to be taken out of her wheelchair and placed in her car seat" Berry says in her entry video. "Then my husband or I lift her 75-pound wheelchair into the back of our minivan."

People can vote for Grace and the Berry family daily through May 31, and double their vote by answering a question correctly before voting at http://www.mobilityawarenessmonth.com/entrant/diane-berry-arlington-heights-il/. The top 10 percent of vote-getters will move on to a judge's selection panel.

"As kids at this age are starting to participate in extracurricular activities, it is important to keep Grace involved to maintain the relationships she has created with her friends, most of whom are able-bodied," Berry said. "She is not letting her disability keep her down, but having a wheelchair-accessible vehicle will make her life's journey more complete."