A New Van Means a New Life for One Local First Grader 

By, Hillary Rossi

DaShaun Davis-Sanders wanted to go to The Puyallup Fair with the rest of his 1st grade class.  He was very excited to go on his first field trip of the year. However, the transportation options for DaShaun and his power wheelchair were less than ideal. He could ride in a school bus with aisles that were too narrow for his wheelchair. This meant that he would have to ride on someone’s lap, and be pushed around in a stroller at the fair. His other option was to ride the special needs bus, which would allow him to stay in his wheelchair but would isolate him from his classmates.

Right away his mother, April Hoffmann, rejected the idea of having her six year old son amble around The Puyallup Fair in a stroller.
“I tried to avoid that at all costs,” she said. “But that was nice of DaShaun’s school to offer.”
April also did not want to force DaShaun to be transported on the special needs bus, because it would segregate him from his friends and classmates.

In addition to the field trip, April needed to find a solution that would meet her family’s daily needs. Since April’s vehicle did not have a lift, she had to manually transport DaShaun from the wheelchair to the car seat and back again whenever they went on a car trip. As he  became older and heavier, it became increasingly difficult to get him around by vehicle. April also has a job and two other children- DaShaun’s twin and his 13-year-old sister- so she does not have much time to relax.

The Hoffmann family needed a vehicle that would allow for both function  and ease. With The Puyallup Fair field trip right around the corner, April didn’t have much time to come up with a vehicle which would allow DaShaun to retain his independence. April also didn’t have much money.

An independent van dealer, Steve Harris, was selling his 1995 Ford Windstar GL with a conversion ramp for approximately $15,000. April thought the van would be excellent to transport her son, but could not afford it. At first she thought about fundraising, and later tried to take out loans from banks, but was refused. After hearing April and DaShaun’s story, Steve Harris knocked down the price of the van to $11,000 and promised to hold it for the Hoffmann family.
Mobility Systems Inc. told April about the Washington Assistive Technology Foundation’s assistive technology loan fund, and she applied for a $10,000 loan. She asked her grandmother for the additional $1,000 needed to buy the van.

After April’s father co-signed for the $10,000 loan, April received the money from WATF, and combined with the $1,000 from her grandmother, purchased the van days before the class trip to the Puyallup Fair. Now DaShaun could ride comfortably back and forth to the fair without ever needing to get out of his wheelchair, be pushed around in a stroller or have to sit on someone else’s lap.

The family’s everyday life has become simpler and easier as well. “It takes a lot less time for him [to get in and out of],” April said. “[The conversion ramp] makes trips not such a big deal anymore.”