North Middle School teen gets a new wheelchair

MENOMONEE FALLS -- Back in February, FOX6 News introduced you to 13-year-old Dylan Smith. Dylan has Muscular Dystrophy and needed a new wheelchair to give him the ability to get through any terrain. Due to the generosity of Dylan's friends, his community, and many FOX6 viewers, Dylan got his new chair!

Dylan's new chair is not your standard wheelchair, as it has enough grip to get through mud, snow or sand, and a cool camouflage paint job! Most importantly, the chair gives Dylan his freedom.

"It gives him all sorts of independence that he didn't have before, which you can't put a price tag on," Dylan's teacher Ryan Anderson said.

Once Dylan's classmates discovered he set his eyes on getting a new chair, they began selling T-shirts to raise money. Many FOX6 viewers wanted to help after seeing Dylan's story.

"We sold 800 shirts from Green Bay to Kansas City. We were shipping shirts out after the piece ran. We sent (shirts) all over the place and all over the state of Wisconsin, which was really neat," Anderson said.

A benefit was also held in Dylan's honor, which raised an additional $14,000, giving Dylan's parents more than enough to get the new chair. "It was amazing to see all of those people in one room to help Dylan get his chair," Dylan's father Kurt Smith said.

Dylan's parents decided to surprise him with the suped-up wheel chair at a school event. "To see him come into the gym with all of his classmates standing around and as soon as he came in they all cheered and clapped their hands," Kurt Smith said.

"When Dylan came around and saw his new wheelchair it was a really happy and warming sensation in my heart," Dylan's friend Pat Wolfram said.

Now Dylan isn't held back from enjoying some of his favorite hobbies. "We went hunting two times already and he can go anywhere he wants," Kurt Smith said.

Although Dylan is a young man of few words, he says he is grateful for what so many people have done for him.

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