Meet Luke Rice

Luke was born with a heart defect and had open heart surgery at 7 days old. At the age of 6 months old development delays were apparent and he was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. The development specialist we were seeing at that time wanted to do genetic testing and the results showed Luke has a unique and rare chromosome deletion identified as 1Q4 Chromosomal Deletion. He is a happy 15-year-old boy who is non-verbal with a sweet and happy spirit. Luke enjoys wearing hats and watching people.

As Luke is growing into a teenager, his muscle tone is getting tighter due to the cerebral palsy spastic muscle tone he has. He is about 92 lbs. and 5 feet tall. We started Botox injections treatments into his hamstrings and are doing physical therapy to help with his muscle tone. The bike would be a good way to exercise his legs. Luke is not able to walk long distances. He does wear orthotics which help support his legs.

He attends a special education life skills class at Crawfordsville Middle School and will be an eighth grader this coming school year.

Crawfordsville Kiwanis is raising money to fund a special tricycle for Luke to use. Won’t you please help out?  You can participate through our GoFundMe page at https://gofund.me/60847247 or by sending a check to Crawfordsville Kiwanis, PO Box 611, Crawfordsville, IN 47933