GREENFIELD — Pam and Jonah Jacobs get around town however they can.
On one trip around Greenfield, the mother and son might visit the pharmacy, the library, a gas station and enjoy looking at some yard art. They often volunteer at the soup kitchen to help give back to the community. Jonah helps prepare food and roll silverware in napkins. Pam does whatever else is needed.
Their travels are aided by a power wheelchair for him and scooter for her, just so she can keep up, they say.
Jonah Jacobs, 18, lives with muscular dystrophy. And though his wheelchair gets him from place to place in his hometown, he often has appointments at Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis, and those can be hard to get to without a wheelchair-accessible van, his mother said.
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Local transportation services have a hard time giving them a ride to the hospital nearly 25 miles away. And Jonah’s appointments can last hours, overtaxing those services with their limited number of drivers and vehicles.
But soon, transportation will be one less obstacle in the Jacobs family’s way.
They were selected by the Muscular Dystrophy Family Foundation, an Indianapolis-based nonprofit, to receive a wheelchair-accessible van from the foundation, free of charge, said Robin Lee, executive director of the organization.
The foundation provides a wheelchair-accessible van to one Hoosier family every year, Lee said. This is the third year for the effort.
The program began when the board of directors for the MDFF had some leadership changes, Lee said; the new president has muscular dystrophy and knows just how difficult it can be for families to acquire wheelchair vans, she said.
The foundation is now in the process of fundraising for the alterations to a van they have procured for the Jacobs family. They expect the alterations to cost about $30,000.
The van will make life a little easier for a family that has faced tough times of its own, a family that has rebounded and now gives back when they can to those less fortunate than they are.
They like to help, Pam Jacobs said, because they know life isn’t always easy.
Four years ago, they were homeless in Florida. Now, they have a home and they have allies in the effort to make life great for their son, Pam Jacobs said.
“Since we’ve had Jonah, we’ve learned what happens if you don’t appreciate what you have,” she said. “We fought back.”
Part of that fight includes working to advocate for her son, with the help of Children’s Bureau liaison Misty Fuller, Pam Jacobs said. Another aspect is teaching him to relish the simple things every day brings, she added.
“Pam always says Jonah is a fighter, but so is she, and so is (Joaquim Jacobs, Jonah’s father),” Lee said. “Pam is the kind of mother who does everything to make sure every day is great for her son.”
And MDFF helps families like Jonah’s whenever they can.
The organization provides care and assistance for daily living to Hoosier families and individuals with muscular dystrophy, including helping with the construction of wheelchair ramps and funding for other needs, Lee said.
Costs like these can be taxing on a family both financially and emotionally, Lee stressed.
The foundation helped the Jacobs family with a ramp leading to the door of their Greenfield apartment, at a cost of about $2,000, Lee said.
Past recipients of the wheelchair-accessible van program have included teens and young adults working to improve their lives, including a 21-year-old who was attending classes at Ivy Tech and struggling to succeed because transportation to and from classes often fell through, Lee said.
“We want everyone with muscular dystrophy to live their life to the fullest, and not let this disease stop them,” she said.
Jonah Jacobs said he looks forward to visiting family in Illinois, as well as shorter trips to Indianapolis like the Children’s Museum and the Indianapolis Zoo, once the van arrives.
His mom echoed the anticipation of expanding their boundaries.
“We all live so close together,” she said. “We will be able to break out of the box.”
