Pacheco Family Bikes Together For Daughter’s Benefit
Pacheco Family Bikes Together For Daughter’s Benefit
Posted
Jackie Gorski-jgorski@timesuniononline.com
Pacheco Family Bikes Together For Daughter’s BenefitWINONA LAKE - A goal wasn’t set when the Pacheco family started biking together a few years ago, but this year, they biked about 1,000 miles in Winona Lake so far.
Winona Lake resident Dan Pacheco has been tandem biking with his 16-year-old special needs daughter Millie, with his wife Marna joining on a separate bicycle, for the past three or four years.
Although he didn’t keep track of how many miles they biked in past years, Dan said he was curious to how many miles he and his family bike so he decided to keep track through an app on his phone.
As of about a week ago, they were a couple miles short of biking 1,000 miles this year using the paved trails, town streets and greenway in Winona Lake. When they started biking this year, Dan said they didn’t really have a goal because they wanted it to be enjoyable for Millie.
When the weather is nice, they’ll go for a bike ride and do how much as they can for that day. He said he was kind of surprised they could do 1,000 miles. He said that aspect was kind of exciting from a numbers perspective, but he didn’t care if they did 200 miles or however long they ended up doing, as long as Millie enjoyed biking.
They started biking in late March or April and will go through October and only bike when it’s nice. Dan said it may feel nice outside, but sometimes when it’s windy and they get biking, “it can get pretty cold.” They bundle up some, but Dan doesn’t enjoy doing that and wants to make sure Millie isn’t freezing.
Dan said he and Marna got into biking with Millie because they were looking for an activity they could do together and knew Millie liked to be outside. They got an electric tandem bike to help with going up the hills. They applied for a K21 Heath Foundation grant to purchase a Pedego bike in Carmel.
He said the electric bike is great for them because Millie doesn’t always pedal to her fullest extent. They use the electronic portion of the bike mainly for getting up hills so it’s not a strenuous as it could be.
Biking has had several benefits. It has helped in Millie’s motion, as well as helping calm and regulate her as Millie sitting still doesn’t happen that often, Dan said. It is also something they can do together as a family, so they’ll ride for half an hour, 45 minutes or an hour and “that’s doable for us.” Most of the time, he said it’s enjoyable as Millie likes to have the wind in her face.
Biking is something normal they can do as a family, be together and it’s “a small drop of peace in our day,” he said.
As caregivers to a special needs child, Dan said “over time, we tend to get isolated” because some things can be difficult so they’re sometimes avoided, “whether you mean to or not.” Biking as a family “gets us out and gets us moving and fresh air and gets us active.”
Besides the physical aspect, it’s something they can do as a family. They also get to see neighbors. Dan said some of his neighbors probably don’t know his name, but only know him as the bike guy.
