Julia Prendergast, left, and Tyme Fiedorczyk wait for his or her turns throughout a discipline journey with the Potential Middle to go bowling at Pinboy’s in Virginia Seashore, Va. in July. (Stephen M. Katz/The Virginian-Pilot/TNS)
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — At house in Florida, a girl knew she wanted to seek out the 2 Hampton Roads runners.
She’d examine them — finest mates Julia Prendergast and Tyme Fiedorczyk, who like to run collectively, with Julia pushing Tyme in a particular chair. Tyme has cerebral palsy, and Julia is her caregiver, driving every day from Virginia Seashore to Chesapeake to see her.
They’ve been counting on a loaner push chair, and began elevating cash to purchase their very own. The loaner weighs 30 kilos; Tyme, 105. And typically the ladies journey to races. A lighter, foldable chair would assist.
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When Irene Koumendouros, in Tarpon Springs, learn a Virginian-Pilot story about them, she knew she had the assistance they wanted. She needed to offer them her nephew’s working chair.
“It’s as if I heard the Lord say to me, ‘You’ll be a double blessing to them,’” she says now.
The chair — a virtually brand-new, high-end 2017 Hoyt Blade Racer — sat idle in a spare room of the household’s house. It’s aluminum, it disassembles, and it helps the physique effectively. Koumendouros bought it a number of years in the past for her nephew, Alex Boudreau, who’s now 22. Like Tyme, he has cerebral palsy and is nonverbal.
His cousin, a marathon runner, had advised the chair so she may push him and he may really feel the fun of the race. However issues didn’t work out as deliberate. She married and moved away, Koumendouros mentioned.
Boudreau, an artist with work in three Florida galleries, was strolled across the neighborhood within the chair however by no means participated in races. The household considered promoting the chair and posted it briefly on Fb Market.
All that modified as he and his aunt had been touched by Julia and Tyme’s relationship, having seen their story at Incapacity Scoop, an internet web site for developmental incapacity information.
“The entire sudden the thought of promoting it didn’t make sense,” Koumendouros says. “I felt the Lord mentioned, ‘You wish to do one thing actually good with this — give it to those women.’”
Not solely did she donate the chair — valued at greater than $5,000 — however she additionally paid to ship it to Virginia.
In the meantime, Tyme’s mom, Kim Fiedorczyk, had began a fundraiser. She raised a bit over $1,000 and has returned half. Some folks needed her to maintain their donations, to go to chair equipment and race charges.
And Tyme and Julia are planning.
“We’re actually excited and we’ve signed up for all of the races,” Julia mentioned.
The duo deliberate to run the Crawlin’ Crab Half Marathon in Hampton on Oct. 2, however that was canceled because the remnants of Hurricane Ian approached.
Julia can’t wait to run and push Tyme of their new chair. And Tyme mentioned she will’t wait to race.
“It’ll be simpler to push and extra comfortable for Tyme,” Julia mentioned.
Koumendouros hopes she and her nephew will at some point be capable of cheer them on from the sidelines. However they gained’t be searching for that blue chair.
Julia and Tyme have already made it their very own, spray portray it yellow and sprinkling it with glitter.
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