Las Vegas, NV
(November
12, 2018) — "You see some of us every
day, yet we are a distance to you," a poem reads. “Our lives are no
different than yours."
The words themselves are inspiring, but even more inspiring
is the man who wrote them.
Meet Lt. Dan – not the character made famous in the 1994
film "Forrest Gump", but Lt. Dan Holman from Las Vegas.
Lt. Dan with his modified motorcycle
Yes, he is an Army veteran and yes, he is missing both legs
-- a double amputee who lost limbs on the battlefield, but never lost his love
of riding.
"[It] gives us time to clear our heads and think,” Dan
says.
With the help of a modified bike, which utilizes mostly hand
controls, Dan is able to hit the open road with no problem. The real
difficulty, he says, came back at the dealership. He had no way to transport
his wheelchair on the bike, which caused problems. "I had to go from the service department, to the
customer waiting area on crutches all the time,” Dan said. “When you do it on
crutches, with no legs, it gets very demanding”
Dan found himself having to travel a distance of about 900
feet both ways. So he approached Samantha Cashman the Marketing Director at Red
Rock Harley-Davidson with an idea that just made sense.
"If you say Lt. Dan, everyone's little ears perk up,”
Cashman said. “So I asked the general manager if I could bring him in a
wheelchair."
And so, Lt. Dan's
Wheelcharrier program was born. A sign
and a donated wheelchair now greet disabled customers at more than 175 Harley
Davidson dealerships across America.
“If they need to use it one of our service managers or our
service writers will wheel it out to them, to help them out of their cars. And
then to take them around the store,” said Cashman. The wheelchairs are donated by various groups, and Dan
delivers them to dealerships himself. The program now is now receiving national
recognition.
Which brings us back to Dan’s poem -- words about humanity
and freedom – a freedom to ride, and a freedom to serve, disability or not.
It don't matter what branch of service you are, we're all
brothers and sisters.
We didn't ask for it. Everyone has a disability of some
form.
Next time you look at us think about what we can do, and not
what we can't do.
