News

The folks at Rydell Cars don’t just put smiles on the faces of customers driving shiny vehicles off their lot; soon, smiles will appear on the faces of RiverView Health pediatric patients enjoying new fun, therapeutic activities thanks to a generous donation from the Grand Forks company.

In honor of National Children’s Day, June 11, 2023, RiverView’s Rehab Services Team shared a social media video requesting help fulfilling its Amazon Wish List. After years of use in speech, occupational, and physical therapy sessions, many toys, games, and other items used to make therapy fun and functional looked ragged and overused.

A Rydell employee saw the post, and the rest, as they say, is history.

“The goal of the Pediatric Therapy Wish List was to replace and update the well-loved toys and games in the pediatric therapy department to increase pediatric engagement, excitement, and development,’’ shared Caitlyn Michno, director of Rehab Services. “The sponsorship provided by Rydell was beyond what we imagined and will allow us to update a large number of items at our Crookston, East Grand Forks, Red Lake Falls, and Fertile clinics.

“We would like to sincerely thank Rydell. Our pediatric patients light up when we have a new therapy tool; we cannot wait to see their excitement when we receive our new items!’’

Pictured above: Rydell’s Toyota Team traveled to Crookston to present the check for pediatric therapy supplies to RiverView Health representatives. Left to right are Rydell representatives Nick Shirek, June Gagnon, Dayton Marek, Anthony Michael, and Brian Rydell; Rehab Services Director Caitlyn Michno; Rydell representative Ben Cahalan; and RiverView Foundation Director Randy Schoenborn.