Ames Middle School Brings a Smile on a Bicycle

Quinn Long, 12, gripped his mother Lisa as she walked alongside him while he celebrated his new ride with a few victory laps around the gymnasium Thursday evening.

Lisa Long said Quinn, who has cerebral palsy and is blind, was likely overwhelmed by the noise from hundreds of students watching him ride the Draisin adaptive tandem bike they helped raise thousands for.

“It's hard to know for sure what he understands,” Lisa Long said later as Quinn listened to music and rocked himself in a rocking chair in the special needs room.

But anyone who sees him ride his bike this summer would know how he feels.

“He would have a huge smile on his face,” Lisa Long said.

R.J. Voss, a physical education teacher at Ames Middle School, saw that big grin when crossed paths with Quinn last summer. Quinn, a seventh grader, smiled from the front of a borrowed tandem bicycle while his father, Mike Long, pedaled from behind.

Voss wanted to bring that smile back to Quinn's face.

A bicycle like the one Quinn rode would have cost at least $9,000, an amount that his parents could not just fork over.

Voss met with Quinn's teacher Jenny Lyster.

“We started talking and we started dreaming,” Lyster said.

And a Schwinn for Quinn was born.

The Schwinn for Quinn fund raiser kicked off the last day of winter break. Students could pay dollars to wear hats and parents brought in money too. In that half day they gave more than $3,000 and Voss pitched in $1,000 but it wasn't enough for the bike Quinn needed.

Voss opened an account and dollars continued to stream in. On Christmas Eve the bank called. It was a Saturday but they wanted Voss to know that someone had donated $8,000 anonymously. It brought the final tally to $17,000.

Voss' wife, Brietta, told Lyster it was the best Christmas they ever had.

Thursday was the first time students saw Quinn ride the bicycle they helped buy.

Lyster wanted students to be recognized for a positive thing they had done.

“This is what you guys did!” Lyster said.

The Draisin from All Ability Cycles, of Jefferson, was sold at a discount allowing fund raisers to purchase two. One will go home with the Longs and the other will remain at the school.

Quinn, who was born 16 weeks premature and has a range of physical and cognitive problems, can't speak or walk much, but he has always loved riding a bicycle. Mike Long said Quinn was too big and too heavy to ride from a trailer as he often had. The Draisin bicycle will allow Quinn to ride and pedal if he wants to. Quinn's new bicycle has a motor that will allow his riding partners to coast from time to time when needed. The Schwinn for Quinn fund will also purchase a trailer to transport the bicycle so that Quinn can ride wherever he wants.

“Now we've got something really cool,” Mike Long said. “(Quinn) will be on it every day in the summertime.”