Students at the Texas School for the Blind are ready to take to the track, but they can't do that without enough pedal-carts to go around.
Elementary-age school kids at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired don't know what it feels like to ride a bicycle outdoors where they control the vehicle.
Called the Roadway Village, it's an almost-completed project that allows the students to ride around in pedal carts.
The Village will be a play area for visually impaired kids that allows them to do many of the same kinds of activities as other kids their age do.
Eventually there will be two Victorian playhouses with a gazebo.
Boy Scouts from Troop 410 are building a mystery unit, which is going to be a pretend car wash that allows the kids to hear the hissing of the water and to know where they are on the roadway based on the sound, residential director Garner Vogt said.
But budget cuts at the Texas School for the Blind almost stopped the $27,000 project in its tracks.
"Projects like this will not get done in the foreseeable future with state money. Anything that has to do with construction or facilities is on hold now until the economy recovers," Texas School for the Blind Superintendent Phil Hatlen said.
Fortunately, community volunteers rode to the rescue.
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Roadway Village
The Texas School for the Blind must rely on donations to complete its pedal cart track.
 
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The Hardcore Riders, a local Harley-Davidson motorcycle group, raised money to buy four pedal carts. They also helped assemble the carts for the students.
"We wanted to help somebody in the Austin area and being just a couple blocks down from our sponsor, from Dark Horse – let's do it here. So, last year was the first year we did it and it worked out good. So, this year we did it again and we're gonna do it again next year," Tom McDonald, president of the Hardcore Riders, said.
They also organized several fundraisers, including a poker run, a barbecue, and a motorcycle ride, said Al Sanders of the Hardcore Riders.
The school hopes to have the roadway finished by fall 2003, but it's still a long way from the Roadway Village the school imagined.
Students still had a great time.
"This is my first time ever to try one of these things out...I think it was an excellent idea for people to get exercise and just have fun in the sun," student Dustin Cooper said.
"It's really fun, but the tracks have a lot of bumps and it's sort of uncomfortable with all the bumps," student Jake Willis said.
