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By MARK E. JONES; Times Leader Staff Writer
Sunday, December 03, 1995     Page: 1A

A 46-inch gap separates Holly Wilkinson from the rest of her family.
   
That’s the height of a staircase that splits their Weatherly area home into
two halves, stranding the girl and her wheelchair on either the upper or lower
level.
    Each day since 1985, Holly’s parents have lugged her — then, her
wheelchair — from bedroom and bathroom on the upper side, to family room on
the lower side. Down steps … up steps … down steps … It’s a
time-consuming transfer.
   
But now, at 10, the girl with cerebral palsy is getting too heavy and too
independent to be carried like a bag of groceries. “I’m trying to make
(Holly’s) life as normal as possible,” says her mother, Judy.
   
That’s why Holly — the talkative, dark-blond girl with a gap-tooth smile,
and an affinity for McDonald’s food and “Gilligan’s Island” — needs a
wheelchair lift.
   
Holly Wilkinson is being featured in The Book of Dreams, a series of 10
stories allowing Times Leader readers to contribute money to help area
families and individuals with special needs during the holidays. This year’s
goal is $20,401.96
   
A lift costs about $5,600, much more than the family can afford on Bill
Wilkinson’s welder’s salary.
   
Their weekly budget is already stretched to the max. Extra dollars are
spent on do-it-yourself home renovations so that Holly can more easily get
from room to room. “It’s draining us, buying just a couple pieces of lumber
each week,” Judy says.
   
The Wilkinson’s have medical insurance, which provides some but not all of
the equipment Holly needs. She expects to get an electric wheelchair soon; it
will replace the one she awkwardly pushes using only her left arm.
   
“She can maneuver pretty well (in the manual wheelchair),” Judy says. “It’s
just not good for her back.”
   
With a new chair and lift, Holly could effortlessly zip the length of the
house, keeping pace with her two brothers, “BJ,” 14, and Jesse, 11. Holly’s
freedom is becoming more important as she matures.
   
At L.B. Morris Elementary School in Jim Thorpe, teachers mix her math and
reading lessons with “life-skills training.” She’s encouraged to use both
hands, eat pleasantly and chat amiably with adults. She earns pennies for
cooperating, then exchanges them at the classroom store for jewelry, pencils
and stuffed animals.
   
Regina DePuy, a life skills support teacher, describes Holly as “extremely
pleasant and cooperative.”
   
“She never, ever complains,” DePuy says.
   
At home, Holly rolls in a stroller during her family’s outdoor hikes. She
bumps over tree roots. She splashes in streams. And like other kids her age,
she pleads with her parents for a pet dog or cat. “Something that I can hold,”
Holly explains. “I would take care of it.”
   
The girl derived her name because of a family quirk, Judy says. Doctors
predicted Holly would be born on Jan. 2, 1986. Her mother, having delivered
each boy two weeks early, guessed that she would be born at Christmas, hence
the name Holly.
   
As it turned out, Holly was born seven weeks premature — well before
Thanksgiving. Still, her mother believes Holly was a gift.
   
So Judy struggles with the red-tape fortress of insurance companies,
foundations and agencies to fulfill Holly’s needs. In recent weeks, she has
searched for a dentist to put braces on her daughter’s teeth. She also dreams
of buying a whirlpool bath, recommended as a therapy to keep Holly’s leg
muscles limber.
   
But reality is as cold and hard as the exposed cinder block wall in the
Wilkinson’s house. And the reality is that it costs lots of money to renovate
this former auto garage and pool hall into a house that is handicapped
accessible.
   
“Disaster, isn’t it?” jokes Bill, as he walks into the
yet-to-be-refurbished family room.
   
The building is getting a face lift, thanks to Carbon County’s
Rehabilitation Program. Two workers on the roof pound hammers near a chimney,
cracked from age. At the front door, four workers pour gravel for a sidewalk
so that Holly can wheel outdoors without sinking in the mud.
   
Much work remains. But by contributing to The Book of Dreams, you can help
make Holly’s house, her home.
   
PAGE 1A CUTLINES
   
TIMES LEADER/PETE G. WILCOX
   
Holly Wilkinson admires a new doll as her brother Jesse helps her comb the
doll’s hair.
   
TIMES LEADER/PETE G. WILCOX
   
10-year-old Holly Wilkinson with her mother, Judy, and brother, Jesse, 11,
live in a home near Weatherly that prevents Holly from having easy access to
the entire house. A wheelchair lift would give her the freedom to travel
throughout the house.
   
The dream
   
Indoor wheelchair lift, platform and gate for Holly: $5,641
   
Radio Shack electronics kit for BJ: $29.99
   
Art supplies for Jesse: $25