Gracie Clark, 13, is blind and has cerebral palsy. Her parents are hosting a fundraiser to buy a wheelchair-accessible van for their daughter.
MANITOWOC – Gracie Clark loves people, loves to laugh … and loves to get out of the house on an adventure.
“If you tell her the night before ‘We are going bye-bye,’ she will be up at 5 a.m. ready to go bye-bye,” said her mother, Ashley Brown. “She’s always excited to get out and see things.”
Gracie’s physical challenges are making it difficult to take those adventures, however. The 13-year-old diagnosed with cerebral palsy as an infant is wheelchair dependent and blind. She also has gastroparesis, which means she needs a permanent feeding tube. She also has severe epilepsy and chronic respiratory failure.
When Gracie was younger, her parents would lift her from her wheelchair into the back seat of their van to set out. Now, Gracie is 5 feet tall and weighs 140 pounds.