GLENDALE, AZ – When Lance Greathouse’s brother developed Parkinson’s, Lance decided the wheelchair to which he would be restricted, would be like no other.
“The way people treated him [his brother] when they saw him in the scooter wasn’t the guy I knew. The guy I knew was a motorcycle rider, racquetball player, real strong guy, but when they saw him in the chair, they treated him very different,” said Greathouse, a dental equipment repairman by trade. So he developed something a little bit “cooler” so that “people would see him, and they would start talking about the chair, not what happened to you and say ‘hey, that’s an awesome chair man!'”
Lance’s latest model is fully adjustable with a revolving turret, lights, horns, fake guns, and a working flame thrower.
“A lot of the guys will come and sit in them, and they’re floored. They think it’s awesome, that what we’re doing here is pretty cool. A lot of people that aren’t in wheelchairs say, ‘I don’t see the point, this is weird.’ No, believe me everyone that’s disabled likes what we’re doing,” Lance said.
Many of Lance’s custom wheelchairs are in various stages of development. He has created Greathouse Labs, and according to the site, the mission is to create wheelchairs that “reflect your personality and are designed to let you pursue your interests and imagination.”