Bicycle donation great gift to Missouri Veterans Home

Recently we heard about the good deed of a Cape Girardeau police officer and Wal-Mart teaming up to get a new bicycle for a boy whose old bike didn't have brakes. But that's not the only bicycle good deed done lately.

Thanks to the American Legion Riders, Chapter 158, of Jackson, the Missouri Veterans Home in Cape Girardeau received a new tandem bicycle for its residents. The bike is built so wheelchair-bound residents can ride while a driver pedals.

So many of the veterans home's residents are restricted in their ability to get out and move around. The bike affords them a mobility and freedom they don't normally have.

"Someone is always telling them what to do, telling them where to stand, taking them by the arm to where they need to be," Charlotte Blow, wife of resident Wilbur "Joe" Blow, said of the residents. "When they're out riding the bike, it's not like that. They're a little more free. It reminds him of what it's like out on the bike."

Her husband agreed: "I feel like I was 50 years younger ... And I'm 93 now." He added that it kind of wakes me up a bit and reminds me of the old days when I used to ride a bike, and this one I can't fall off of."

Veterans all over the country live at facilities such as the Missouri Veterans Home. While some are able to get around as they wish, many are not, and any effort to restore their sense of freedom and independence should be praised. We thank the American Legion Riders, Chapter 158, for their thoughtful -- and practical -- donation.