Norwich — Starting Friday, Cathy Montgomery of Preston will be able to go to Walmart whenever she wants and can play bingo at Foxwoods Resort Casino for the first time in more than two years.

It hasn’t been the COVID-19 pandemic keeping her home, but other medical issues that limit her mobility to just a few steps.

On Tuesday, Montgomery and her husband, Russ, got an advanced lesson from Philip Pavone in the parking lot of his AZ Pawn store on how to operate her new wheelchair-accessible silver 2009 Dodge Caravan and her new compact motorized wheelchair she also will use to get around inside her home.

“It’s kind of like, oh my goodness, and I am ever so grateful,” Cathy Montgomery said of learning she was accepted to receive both the Jazzy motorized chair and the van equipped with a chair lift. Now she'll be able to load her chair into the rear of the van and head off shopping or to the casino with her daughter, Amanda Mercado.

“Here’s the key to your van,” Pavone said to Montgomery. “It costs you a hug.”

Jeremiah Tremblay, 14, of Woodstock, son of Shay and Bob Tremblay, will be out enjoying local parks, stores and events come Friday. The teenager, who was born prematurely and has a number of medical conditions, is getting too big for his mother to lift him from a car seat to his wheelchair, and she can’t lift the chair by herself. That means mom and son can’t go anywhere alone together, Shay Tremblay said.

Starting Friday, the Tremblays will be driving their son around in their new 2011 maroon wheelchair lift Chrysler Town & Country van. Jeremiah rolls onto the lift in his chair and it lifts them through the side door. Once inside, his chair is secured in place.

“We’re planning to go on day trips,” Shay Tremblay said. “I’m trying to think of something we will enjoy. We’re so grateful for all of this.”

Pavone has been refurbishing and donating motorized wheelchairs for the past 13 years through his Gift of Mobility program. Those who need such a device can learn more about the program at its website, azpawngiftofmobility.com. Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020, he has not been able to host giveaway gala events for dozens of recipients. But the program has continued quietly, with about three chairs a week being donated, Pavone said. He also has helped install handicapped ramps at recipients’ homes.

Pavone has teamed with Ron Daigneault, owner of Superior Auto Center about a mile from AZ Pawn on Route 2 in Norwich. Daigneault occasionally picks up donated chairs and brings them to Pavone. A few years ago, the two collaborated on their first van giveaway to a recipient in Westerly. Daigneault worked on that van to make it road-worthy and prepared these two vans for their new owners.

Giving away two vans at the same time was a first for the program, Pavone said.

Daigneault said the maroon van was given to him by friends who have a severely handicapped son. The family got a new van and asked that Daigneault find someone who needed a van.

The silver van was more of a project, he said.

Another family donated a van to him with the rear chair loading lift, called a Joey. But that van could not be repaired. So Daigneault bought the silver van, renovated the interior and transferred the Joey ramp to it and did whatever repairs were needed.

Daigneault tried to downplay his role in the program, calling himself a “small-scale” contributor to Pavone’s longstanding philanthropic work.

“I’m involved as the need arises,” Daigneault said. “And there’s a big need out there. We’re really trying to get more people to donate vans, no matter what condition. If we get enough of them, we can make one out of it.”

For most families with handicapped-accessibility issues, motorized wheelchairs, wheelchair vehicles and even home ramps are cost prohibitive. On hand for Tuesday’s giveaway were state Sens. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, and Heather Somers, R-Groton. The two have been working on state legislation that would require insurance companies to cover the cost of motorized wheelchairs. The bill has fallen short of passage in the past two years, but the senators said they will try again next spring.

“We have a lot of mandates we put on insurance companies,” Somers said, “but this is transformative for people’s lives.”

c.bessette@theday.com