On Saturday at Melvin Miller Park in Urbana, 3-year-old Dagny Greer received a specially designed Amtryke, created by Jake Schumacher of Ambucks.
The adaptive tricycle was made possible through the generosity of several local organizations, including Harold Kerr American Legion Post #173, Bellefontaine Moose Lodge #2563, Kiwanis Club of Champaign County, Bellefontaine Kiwanis Club, Ambucks—the national organization that produces special needs Amtrykes—and Greenbucs, the Greene County chapter of Ambucks that assembles the tricycles.
Dagny’s parents, Charlie Greer and Lydia Hess, suspected she had achondroplasia before she was born, but it wasn’t confirmed until January 2022, when she was just three months old.
“It was a shock to learn about her dwarfism,” Hess said, “but we’re taking it one day at a time, and the Board of DD has been a huge help.”
Dagny now receives care from some of the world’s top specialists at Cincinnati Children’s and Akron Children’s Hospitals.
Though she is only the size of a typical 1-year-old, Dagny is fiercely independent.
Her parents say she loves doing things on her own and is already showing a love for the outdoors.
Inspired by her grandfather, Steve—whom she calls PawPaw—Dagny has taken an interest in woodworking and has even asked for another tool set for Christmas.
