It’s taken longer than expected, but Daniel Hudgins of Mathews finally has his new wheels.
Hudgins, 60, has been without transportation since last September, when his adult tricycle was hit and destroyed while he was making the daily trek from his home on Church Street to Faulkner and Son, his friend Keith Faulkner’s business, on Main Street. Fortunately, Hudgins wasn’t injured.
When Mathews resident Susan Krista heard about the accident, she launched a fundraiser to raise $400 to buy a new trike for her longtime friend. In less than a day, the Mathews community had donated $3,300. Over time, that amount grew to $4,540.
Since Hudgins had been finding it increasingly difficult to pedal the trike, Krista decided to be a bit more ambitious and purchase a trike with an electric motor instead. That plan evolved, however, into buying an electric mobility scooter, along with a shed to store and charge it in.
Last Thursday, the bright green EW54 EWheels Coupe drove into the parking lot at Faulkner and Son, and Krista turned over the key to Hudgins. Pretty soon, he was tootling around the parking lot, practicing how to back up and learning how to use the radio that came standard on the tiny vehicle. For the past four decades, Hudgins has been downtown Mathews’s unofficial courier, running errands for business owners on a daily basis, and the scooter will help him continue that service for a long time.
Krista said holdups with delivery of the vehicle occurred because of the pandemic, the weather, and fabrication of a custom cover by Gloucester Canvas that will provide protection from the weather. After hearing about Hudgins’s plight and the Mathews community’s efforts to purchase a replacement for his trike, Gloucester Canvas employee Lynn Scalise talked to company owner Jarratt Quail about making a cover, and Quail agreed to make one free of charge. The form-fitting cover is similar to covers made for boats, with zippered doors that can be folded back on warm, sunny days.
The scooter can travel up to 15 miles per hour, enough to make it legal on a 25 mph road, but since parts of downtown Mathews have a 35 mph speed limit, Krista plans to petition the board of supervisors to allow mobility scooters in the 35 mph portion of the village. And since Hudgins lives beyond the area on Church Street that has a 35 mph limit, Krista is also going to request that the lower speed limit be extended to Glebe Road.
Faulkner said he thinks the speed limit should be lower along that stretch of road anyway, pointing out that children cross Church Street every day to go from the elementary and middle schools to the Mathews Boys and Girls Club. While Faulkner said he’s willing to pick up Hudgins and drive him into town, Hudgins is determined to be independent as long as he can.
“I think people in Mathews are great for what they did,” said Faulkner.
“We all love Daniel,” said Krista. “We hear so much on the news about the negative. People offer a helping hand every day in this county, but they don’t do it to be recognized. We need to put more emphasis and focus on the good.”