Pink is her favorite color. She loves owls and Bambi. She is passionate about the Boyertown Marching Band. She loves going to church and blesses everyone throughout the day. But right now she needs a blessing in the form of a wheelchair accessible van.
Her family’s 2003 van has been called unfit by their mechanic and a new, bare-bones, wheelchair accessible van has the prohibitive price of $50,000 or more.
Alaina Derecola, 17, of Boyertown, was born premature. Developmentally, she is a two-year-old and speaks in two- or three-word sentences. She has cerebral palsy and doesn’t walk. She has epilepsy, severe visual impairment, chronic kidney disease, a feeding tube, pancreatitis and chronic pain. And that is just the start of the list of her infirmities. Because of these health issues she is confined to a wheelchair and needs to make weekly visits, sometimes more, to a doctor at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. And because she is a tall girl at 5-feet 7-inches, moving her isn’t as simple as picking her up and putting her in a car. She needs a wheelchair and thus a wheelchair accessible van.
“It is very hard. We don’t know when we’ll need to make a rush trip to CHOP,” explains her mother, LeAnn Derecola. “We take it one day at a time and do what we have to do.” She notes that Alaina’s emergencies have required her to be helicoptered to CHOP at least twice.
Alaina needs round-the-clock care, which includes seventy-six hours per week of skilled nursing. This need is the reason her father, Chris, started his own business, Derecola Pest Control, LeAnn explains. “He’s good at what he does and it makes it possible for him to write his own schedule to be able to take Alaina to appointments. His clients are very understanding when he has to delay or reschedule,” she adds.
Alaina loves to go to high school. It was in a discussion with her bus driver, Anne Benfield, that the idea of crowd funding came up. “It was when the lottery hit the record high. I told her if I won I would buy her a new van. But at that same time there was the story about a guy walking to work and someone started a crowd funding page to get him a car. I thought if it worked for him, maybe it would work for Alaina,” Benfield recalls. “When I mentioned it, Alaina said, clear as anything, ‘Go for it Miss Anne.'”
Benfield then established a Go Fund Me page seeking donations for a new van for Alaina. Anyone interested in donating can find the page at www.gofundme.com/mbso8g.
Anyone who is not comfortable putting their credit card information on the web, or wishes to donate directly to the Derecolas can mail a check to Alaina Derecola Van Fund at P.O. Box 612, Boyertown, PA 19512. LeAnn explains that by sending a check directly to the P.O. Box, all monies go to the van purchase. To cover administrative costs, GoFundMe keeps 8% of all donated funds.
One of Alaina’s joys is her service dog, Eli, a 6-year-old black lab.
Eli helps Alaina in a variety of ways. He picks up things she drops, turns on lights, open doors and comforts her when she is in pain. “Her neurologist said a service dog could help her,” LeAnn says. And Eli, who was recently relicensed, has been a huge help to the family.
The Derecolas also have a son, Dylan, 16, who also go to Boyertown Senior High. “Eli helps Dylan make new friends, because he is comfortable talking about him,” LeAnn says.
The family is constantly adapting Alaina’s environment to make things easier for her to enjoy or function. While they resisted asking for help, her needs and the rust on the van kept increasing.
“We have a strong faith,” LeAnn says. “And we are grateful for all the help we’ve received so far.”
