Canon City Teen To Get $18,000 Donated Computer

Thursday, on the second anniversary of his wife’s death, Richard Grasmick decided to donate a computer meant for his late wife, to a wheelchair-bound teen.

Grasmick, 69, lives in the Crowley County town of Olney Springs. He said he wanted to help Aaron Edwards, 14, of Canon City after hearing about the boy’s struggle to collect damages from a medical mistake made at birth by a Florida hospital.

The computer is an $18,000 Dynavox Max, said Grasmick. It allows paralyzed people to communicate by blinking their eyes to create letters and words. Grasmick said the computer arrived a week before his wife, Judy, died from Lou Gehrig’s disease.

“It just seemed like I was going to have it forever underneath my bed,” said Grasmick. “It’s nice that I can just find a place for it.”

At Grasmick’s request, a KRDO NewsChannel 13 crew brought the computer to Colorado Springs where Aaron Edwards and his mother, Mitzi Roden, could receive it as soon as this weekend.

Roden became emotional when told of the computer’s background.

“Bless his heart,” she said of Grasmick. “I’m sorry to hear of his loss, but I know that Aaron will make the best use of it that he possibly can.”

Roden said she hopes to meet Grasmick soon and thank him personally.

Grasmick is a Crowley County native who moved back to the area from Texas after his wife’s death.