Foundation steps in to replace Whitefish woman's stolen bike

A small smile spread across Jordan Bludworth’s face as a shiny cherry-red bike was wheeled toward her.

“It’s your new bike,” her mom, Corinne Bludworth, told her.

Jordan’s smile grew bigger as she sat looking at the three-wheeled cycle.

Just a half an hour before, Jordan had stepped into Remedies Day Spa in downtown Whitefish. Jordan, who has Down syndrome, thought she was coming to help her mom, a manager at the spa.

What Jordan was met with last Thursday evening was a chorus of friends and family shouting, “Surprise!” The shop had been decorated with pink and purple balloons and streamers, a cake waited and punch was being served.

The party was a way to cheer up Jordan.

The 22-year-old hit a rough patch after her bike was stolen last month from the family’s backyard.

Corinne spread the word through Facebook and friends joined in the search for the bike.

But about two weeks after it went missing, no one had found the bike and police said they were closing the case.

“Jordan was very sad about it,” Corinne said. “She would forget what happened to it and I’d have to say ‘Honey, someone took it, remember.’”

Corinne and Jordan walk or bike around Whitefish as much as they can. Jordan would load the basket of her bike up with books from the library.

“In the winter she’s sad because she can’t ride in the snow,” Corinne said.

Corinne had planned to purchase a new bike for Jordan for her birthday, but Sabrina Wisher stepped in and said Mikayla’s Miracles and Blessings Foundation would like to purchase the bike.

Wisher wheeled the brand new bike into the shop. Jordan sat on the bike seat and quietly said, “I love my bike.”

Mikayla’s Miracles and Blessings is named for Wisher’s daughter, Mikayla, who can’t speak or walk and suffers multiple seizures. When Medicaid denied a special bed for Mikayla, Sabrina began raising money for the bed. Donations poured in from the community. When the SleepSafe Bed company eventually donated a bed to Mikayla, Wisher started a foundation with the donations to help other disabled children.

She has since purchased a bed for another child and a bike for a young girl.

When she heard Jordan’s story, she wanted to help. She ordered a bike that her son, Hunter Hahn, assembled.

“This is about quality of life — I’m a huge advocate of providing the things that make quality of life better,” she said. “It’s important to bless another person and it’s rewarding to help other children.”

Still sitting on her bike and with a big smile on her face, Jordan posed for numerous pictures and got hugs from friends and family. She took an inaugural ride a few feet through the shop.

Then family friend Bobbie Anderson called Jordan over to the cake with purple frosting that read “Happy Bike Day.” Anderson said losing the bike was tough on Jordan and those who know her wanted to do something to cheer her up.

“She took it really personally and we wanted to show here that there are people that really do care,” she said.