For Pruitt, it’s the Segway or no way

Byron Brewer, writes a weekly column for the Georgetown News-Graphic. This column appeared in the mid-week paper on June 21.

Even before Gary Pruitt moved to Scott County in the summer of 1978 to take a job as band director for Scott County High School, he had experienced “odd sensations in my head and face as well as some headaches.” He sought medical advice and after a five-day hospital stay, he was told that “any diagnosis of the problem would be inconclusive” and therefore no diagnosis was given.This would prove to be the first of several times Gary, who later became a good friend, sought the source of his medical problems which would repeatedly occur until he finally received a diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis in 1998, some 30 years and six neurologists later.During the year the Louisville native spent as a SCHS band director, he decided to go into school administration. He attended the University of Kentucky in order to obtain the needed state certifications which would allow him to pursue his long-range goals. So he could “walk in the same path as my future teachers,” Gary sought and attained a position as a sixth grade instructor at Bondurant Middle School in Frankfort. He spent two years in the classroom which gave him valuable experience that would come in handy during his rising career.“After two years spent in the classroom, I decided to pursue a position as an elementary school principal,” Gary recalled. “I applied for the position at Sadieville Elementary School and was successful. During this time, microcomputers were first being introduced to the schools and in addition to being a school principal I also filled the role of the first unofficial computer coordinator in Scott County.”After one year as principal at Sadieville, Gary became a five-year principal of Stamping Ground Elementary and this is where I got to really know him. Under his leadership, that rural school became the most computer-advanced, parent volunteer-oriented facility in the system, in my humble opinion. It helped, of course, that Gary was the “unofficial computer coordinator in Scott County.”Due to the retirement of my longtime friend, the late Jack Wise, as principal of Southern Elementary, Gary became only the second principal the school had ever known. He was in this post of leadership for the remainder of his career, a decade.It was during that grand service at Stamping Ground Elementary that Gary decided to run for Georgetown City Council. After a strenuous primary wherein he covered the entire town by going door to door twice (and in the south end of the city, three times), Gary felt that he had to work extra hard because unlike most of his opponents he was not from the area and did not have a built-in voting block of family and childhood friends. He was elected that first time and served three two-year terms.“As a councilman, I helped pass an ordinance eliminating residents having to share the cost of paving the streets where their homes were located, which was a key goal of mine in deciding the run,” Gary told me. “Another goal of mine fell one vote short of passage, that being the sale of the city-owned water company. One caveat for council service was that I got to travel with a five-person delegation to Tahara, Japan, for the signing of the Sister City agreement between our two communities. “I worked as a liaison between the city and the cable TV provider and was honored with an award by the local chapter of the NAACP. Another achievement of which I am proud was setting up the council chambers with video feeds so that we could broadcast the meetings live over the local access channel.”Gary was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 1998 and retired from Scott County Schools with a medical disability. He had already begun walking with a cane.The disease progressed over his first few years of retirement so that even walking with a cane became difficult. Now enter the Segway, a self-balancing personal transportation device with two wheels that can operate in any level pedestrian environment. He first tried one out at a dealer in Cincinnati; it scared him silly! But Gary purchased it nonetheless. “My goal was to use it around the neighborhood in order to get me out of the house on nice days,” he said. “I eventually and wholeheartedly embraced my new found freedom and began to use it in various new situations. Eventually, my wife Wanda and I traveled with it to Europe, visiting Austria and the Czech Republic, as well as taking a cruise of the Pacific Northwest and a trip to New England. My motto became ‘the Segway or no way!’“We found the Segway to be a big attraction to people as I traveled around. Even today, it is rare that we go somewhere and someone doesn’t stop me to inquire about the strange device. I like to talk to other people who like me are disabled and share my experiences with them. I know of at least four other people, all with MS, who have purchased a Segway after either talking with me or visiting my website (segwayman.blogspot.com).”As wonderful as his Segway has been, recently another major event has occurred which helps Gary to get around: the procurement of a Bioness L-300, a device which when worn as a cuff around his leg sends an electrical shock to one of his leg muscles whenever he raises his heel, causing it to contract a muscle which cause his foot to raise. This eliminates the “foot drop” problem which causes Gary and others with MS to stumble and fall. Gary completed training on the device and is now wearing it “all the time I am awake.”“This remarkable device allows me to walk ‘normally,’ except I receive a shock every time I raise my heel,” Gary said. “I can adjust the strength of the shock so that it is not too uncomfortable. But once again, after 10 years, I can walk without the assistance of the Segway or any other aid. Only a few people can truly understand how it feels to be able to walk after some traumatic injury or disease renders them unable to do so.”I may be one of those few, having lived with crippling headaches and seizures since 2004. And when Gary stunned me by entering Cracker Barrel for a recent lunch with his old pal Byron, you could’ve knocked me over with a feather when he walked in the doorway without his Segway. (I had no knowledge until that time of the Bioness L-300.) I don’t know who was happier, Gary or me.For former City Councilman and school principal Gary Pruitt, life is not “the Segway or no way” anymore.

Bookstore Shopping

Shopping at one of our favorite bookstores in Lexington, Half Price Books in Hamburg Place. Because of my use of the Bioness L-300 I have been using the Segway in stores somewhat less than I was prior to acquiring the Bioness system. But, on evenings such as this, where I really didn't feel like walking, once again it was called to duty. However, I still use it in larger stores such as Wal-Mart or Lowe's.