Paying it forward: Wheelchair gets a second life with Twinfield teen

Jan. 12, 2022  |  By Abbie Kopelowitz | Community News Service

Betty Bordeaux of Waterbury visits Twinfield Union High School to pass along the electric wheelchair her adult daughter used to freshman Jordynne McKinstry. Courtesy photo

A Waterbury family’s lifelong experience with access for the disabled came full circle with a gift that gave a Vermont teen some new wheels. 

In late November, a short ceremony took place at Twinfield Union High School in Marshfield to pass along a custom electric wheelchair to freshman Jordynne McKinstry. On hand were Waterbury Center residents Betty Bordeaux and Tom Scribner. 

The gently used chair came from Bordeaux’s home and has been updated by Scribner for its new young user. 

Twinfield principal Mark Mooney said the gesture and the gift itself will have a significant impact. 

“'It’s really gonna open up a world in many ways, so it's kind of a wonderful thing,” Mooney said.

The story behind the wheelchair gift reveals a series of connections that started with Scribner, a Waterbury Center resident who has a small business tinkering and repairing small-engine equipment such as lawnmowers and snowblowers. He’s also an advocate for recreation access for people of all abilities. Last spring, he founded the nonprofit Friends of Hope Davey Park with the purpose to push for improved multiple uses of the park near his home known for its disc golf course. 

Scribner through his organization purchased an all-terrain wheelchair called an Action Trackstander Trackchair that it makes available by reservation for disabled individuals in Waterbury, free of charge. This electric wheelchair is used for access out on nature trails, in parks, and one user in the fall even checked it out to use when he went deer hunting, according to Scribner.

The Vermont Center for Independent Living connected Scribner to Twinfield’s special educator, Paul Bialowoz. He was looking for a way for Jordynne to enjoy the school’s 60-acre campus, so he arranged to borrow and try the Waterbury Trackchair in October.

McKinstry enjoyed taking the chair out into the woods.“She just was thrilled with the whole idea of it,” Scribner said. 

After the successful Trackchair experience, Scribner had an idea. That’s where 89-year-old Elizabeth “Betty” Bordeaux comes into the picture. Scribner’s organization caught the attention of Betty’s family, who then called Tom to donate a used, but technically advanced power wheelchair.  

Bordeaux is the mother of twins, Debra and Diana. Debra, or “Debbie”, was born with  Cerebral Palsy and used a wheelchair. In 2018, she died at age 64, and since then, her wheelchair has sat unused. 

Hoping Scribner could ensure the chair was in good working order, Bordeaux told him she would love to see it go to a young person who needed it. So, Tom got Debbie’s old electric wheelchair running and ready to deliver to Twinfield Union High School in late November. 

“This accessibility device and resource is going to have a second life now,” Scribner said. 

Bordeaux, who was able to deliver the chair with Scribner and meet Jordynne, agreed. “I know my Debbie would have been thrilled to know that it was being used for somebody,” she said.

Mooney said that everyone at Twinfield was thrilled to see Jordynne in her new wheelchair. It needed a few more adjustments to fit it specifically for her and Scribner has since made those.  

Jordynne explained that, unlike her former manual wheelchair, this new chair is automatic offering different speeds, and most notably, it can be used outdoors. As Jordynne put it, “Grass and my regular chair don’t go well together.”

Jordynne said she was looking forward to how the new chair will expand opportunities for her to do things she enjoys with more mobility. One of those things is the Renaissance Independent Study Program at Twinfield. Her independent study project involves a service learning project focused on education. Jordynne said that the new chair is perfect for working with preschoolers who spend a lot of their time outside. 

Scribner said he had no doubt that the new chair would give Jordynne more freedom to do many new things given what she already managed with her manually operated chair. 

“She's just the nicest kid,” said Tom, “and when you see what she's capable of, given what she has to work with. It's quite inspiring.”

The whole process was eye-opening for Bordeaux who experienced a lack of schooling provisions and accommodations for her disabled daughter in the 1950s. Debbie began her education in Rutland at the Vermont Achievement Center but later the family moved and when laws changed to incorporate students with special needs into public schools, she attended Burlington High School where she graduated in 1973. Afterward, she earned her bachelor’s degree at the College of St. Joseph in Rutland. 

Debbie for years worked at the Vermont Center for Independent Living in Montpelier as an administrative assistant. She also worked tirelessly as an advocate for people with disabilities, making sure that individuals had the services and equipment they needed.

Scribner and Bordeaux agreed that the story came full circle in the effort to repurpose Debbie’s chair to assist a teenager today.    

Bordeaux remarked on how special education and acceptance of students of all abilities has come a long way in Vermont schools since her daughters were students decades ago. “There is a great deal more compassion because of the fact that more and more children are able to be in public schools so their disabilities are visible,” she said.

Community News Service is a collaboration with the University of Vermont’s Reporting & Documentary Storytelling program.