Sophomore Lilliana Hernandez said she couldn’t believe how sore her arms were after spending the day in a wheelchair for the first day in her life.

Hernandez was just one of hundreds of students and staff who participated in the Wheelchair Challenge that was conducted between Nov. 3 – 20 at Akins. The event had two purposes: raise money to install automatic doors at various locations across campus and to bring awareness of the challenge of wheelchair mobility at Akins.

Students and staff paid $10 to challenge others to spend an entire day in a wheelchair. The challenges brought in $2,578. Online donations brought in another $206 toward meeting the $30,000 goal.

SEL teacher Courtney Harris said it would have been impossible to get to the $30,000 goal based on challenges alone.

“Knowing how much that we had made, we are still not close to the goal that we expected to get out of this challenge,” Harris said. “We are hopeful the district is going to help support us to actually still get the money to install doors that we need at campus.”

As of now, four out of five doors have been confirmed by the district to be installed during the spring, assistant principal Bill Creel said. In addition, a concrete slab will be added behind the STEM building to improve wheelchair accessibility as students board on and off buses.

Despite not reaching the $30,000 goal, organizers of the event said they think it was successful in raising awareness about how difficult it is to move around campus in a wheelchair.

“It really raises awareness around the school for accessibility and for the challenges being in a wheelchair,” said SEL teacher Anthony Bromberg. “The real goal was to participate fully and to get the whole campus involved and to become more aware that there are wheelchairs around in school.”

Many teachers saw students participating in this challenge, and heard a lot about their struggles in being in a wheelchair and how it really benefits the awareness of this challenge.

“I talked to some of my students who had done the challenge, that their friends had to help them by pushing them around, opening doors for them,” said SEL teacher Jack McGavick. “A lot of people haven’t thought about the challenges of being in a wheelchair.”