[NARRATOR] It's not always easy for 15-year-old Milo
Lawson to get around; a fact his parents know very well.
[KIM LAWSON] For Eric and I,
you know, it's a lot of stress.
We don't...we don't sleep. He doesn't sleep at night.
He has seizures all day.
He wears a helmet 24/7, because he could have
a drop seizure at any time.
[NARRATOR] Milo,
who developed epilepsy and autism at age one,
has challenges with basic movement
that affect all four members of his family.
[KIM LAWSON] We don't do anything.
We don't really go on vacations.
There's a couple of places
that we go because there is a pool
where he can swim,
but getting on an airplane
with him is just super hard and taking him
anywhere is super hard.
"Let's go." [NARRATOR]
But get this young man on an adaptive bicycle
at outdoors for all in Magnuson Park
and the concerns about his constant health issues
start melting away with the powerful medication
of being able to move outside like everyone else.
[ED BRONSDON] Don't you remember the first time
you learned to ride a bike?
What did that make you feel like?
It's as close to Harry Potter magic as it gets.
[NARRATOR] That's Ed Bronsdon,
executive director of Outdoors for All, a nonprofit
which has been helping our entire community
enjoy outdoor recreation for more than 40 years.
[ED BRONSDON] We help everybody, people with
and without disabilities, get out and go cycling
and skiing and kayaking and rock climbing.
But our cycling program in particular,
it doesn't matter
whether it's raining, doesn't matter
whether it's sunny, we can get everybody out on a bike.
[KIM LAWSON] Milo is loving this.
[NARRATOR] Thanks to a partnership
with the Seattle Department of Transportation, Outdoors
for All is able to provide free rental of these bikes
through the month of September.
[KIM LAWSON] Keep going.
[NARRATOR] A family that once felt stifled, is free,
and a person who once felt ostracized is riding high.
[ED BRONSDON] When we go out on our bikes,
we become the cool kids because everyone's like,
"Well, let me look at that bike.
How's that?" As opposed to
someone who might get picked on
or as opposed to someone who's left behind.
This way everybody's included
and everybody gets to have some fun outside.
[NARRATOR] Outdoors for All has 250 bikes like this one,
what's believed to be
one of the largest fleets
of adaptive bicycles in the world.
And they're making an impact
all over Seattle and King County.
(gear clanking)
Outdoors for All,
brings its bikes out into different neighborhoods,
like here at Seward Park
in southeast Seattle, to encourage
as much participation as possible.
[ANN SUTPHIN] I'm sure there's a lot more people
in the city of Seattle that,
if they knew about this program, would love to use it.
[NARRATOR] Ann Sutphin is the Mobility
Solutions manager
for the Seattle Department of Transportation.
(bike bell rings)
Like Outdoors for All, SDOT's mission is to make Seattle
more accessible,
by improving access to mobility options
for people dealing with physical,
cultural or financial barriers.
[ANN SUTPHIN] It's front and foremost for us.
All ages and abilities for active transportation
is very important to us.
[NARRATOR] SDOT support
has helped double the number of rides
for the outdoors for all adaptive bike program,
not just helping the Lawson family, but helping reduce
traffic congestion and fossil fuel pollution, too,
for every family in the city.
[ANN SUTPHIN] Making our community
a place that you can get around by biking and walking
makes for a healthier community.
Outdoors for all and their adaptive cycling
program is such a treasure in our city.
And the fact that we can amplify that is wonderful.
We're lucky. [NARRATOR] The
Lawson's say they're the lucky ones.
[ERIK LAWSON] Giant leap out of the doldrums and into fun
and you forget about any lack of ability.
Erik Lawson is hoping Outdoors for All can help everyone
see how people who have special needs
have some special insight to offer too.
[ERIK LAWSON] It's just a wider
lens of what empathy looks like in
providing equity for kids that
have abilities that just diminish
their ability to do things that the typical kids can do.
[NARRATOR] Put simply, if a family dealing with this
many challenges can discover the joys of riding a bike,
you probably can, too.
So spread the word: Outdoors for All, really, is
for all of us.
[ED BRONSDON] It is extraordinary
and I get very emotional over
it because there's so many more people
who could take advantage of this.
And we've just got to find a way
to get them out there because everybody can do it.
[KIM LAWSON] His favorite thing to do.
[ANNOUNCER]
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City Stream Tuesday nights at 7 on the Seattle Channel,
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