Morrisville Dairy Queen campaigns for special needs child

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Friday, March 25, 2016
Local DQ campaigns for child with special needs
Dhruv Shah

MORRISVILLE, NC (WTVD) -- There are only six more days for you to vote to help a special needs child win an adaptive bicycle.

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We first told you about The Great Bike Giveaway from Friendship Circle last week. Hundreds of children are in the running nationwide, a few here locally. The contest runs through March 30.

A mom in Morrisville reached out to a local business owner for help with her son's bid for a bike and how that business owner is responding could make all the difference for her little boy.

Seven-year-old Dhruv Shah has cerebral palsy. He's in a wheelchair and has very limited mobility. When he gets home from school, as soon as he gets off the bus, his mom loads him in her van and takes him to treatment where he spends several hours. He doesn't get to play like the other children do. But Dhruv is in a national contest to win an adaptive bike for someone just like him. It has a special wheelchair seat that keeps him balanced and secure. His mom or dad can ride behind him and power the bike and steer. A bike like this costs over than $5,000. Unless he wins the contest, his parents would never be able to afford to get him one.

But Dhruv isn't winning his contest. So in an act of desperation his mother went to their local Dairy Queen last week before Free Cone Day. It's one of the restaurant's busiest days of the year. She asked owner, Andrew Valkanoff, if she could hang up fliers asking people to vote for Dhruv and help him win a bike. Andrew was so moved by Dhruv's story, he hung up the fliers himself. He even had a big sign made customers can see as soon as they walk in to his Dairy Queen.

Vote for all of the Triangle children who need an adaptive bike:

  • Aurora J - Click here to vote!
  • Ben M - Click here to vote!
  • Dhruv S - Click here to vote!
  • Eleroa T - Click here to vote!
  • Daniel M - Click here to vote!
  • David M - Click here to vote!
  • Melissa O - Click here to vote!
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