Hummingbird

Cobey Thomas is twenty-three and has nonverbal autism. His favorite thing to do is swing.  "We always had a swing set in the backyard, or we’d go to the park,” says his mom Jennifer, "Then he started getting really tall.” Cobey graduated from his Knoxville school last year. Towards the end of the school year, Cobey would come home with bruises and welts on his legs. He’d grown too big to ride traditional swings. Jennifer called every handyman and contractor she could find to try to build a custom swing set for her gentle giant. “I’d say, ‘He’s 6'10'', 200 pounds, and he functions on a 3-year-old level.’ They’d go, ‘Heck no!’” Then she found Adam Ellis. “He was here the next day.” Ellis measured Cobey to get the right dimensions, then he started to build. Cobey was thrilled with the finished product, but Jennifer feared the bill would run into the thousands. She needn’t have worried. Ellis gave them the swing free of charge.