Riley’s bin busy
Business smarts despite a brain injury
Riley Silvester recently mastered tying his shoelaces, now he’s starting a business.
The 9-year-old Waihı¯ Beach boy lives with a traumatic brain injury, after he was run over in a driveway at 19 months-old.
It adds challenge to everything from tying shoes to staying focused, and affects his hearing and vision, but hasn’t stopped him coming up with a string of ideas to help others. ‘‘Where you Bin’’ is the latest. Riley’s family was discussing the new rubbish and recycling system to be introduced in the Western Bay of Plenty District in July and he puzzled over how it would work.
‘‘He said ‘If you come here and then you’re not here when the rubbish truck’s emptied your bin, do they just leave them on the side of the road?’’’ mother Char Nolan said.
‘‘It gets quite windy here. And he said ‘So we’re going to have bins flying down the road? We’ll have to catch them’.’’
Before long, they planned a service that would see Riley take care of wheelie bins for property owners who weren’t around.
Riley already has some customers: holiday-home owners with private collection arrangements. ‘‘It’s fun,’’ he said. This is one of several plans by Riley to help others – he’s done a lawn-mowing service and is working on a cart to sell lowcost vegetables.
It’s been hard for Riley and his family since he was hit in a Taupo¯ driveway in 2013.
He ran out while a family member was moving a car during a holiday.
‘‘You don’t blame them at all because it could happen to anybody,’’ Nolan said. ‘‘We’re just lucky he’s still here. Reversing cameras were only starting to come out [then] ... And, him being so small, there was no way you would have ever seen him.’’
She and stepdad Roy Steed focus on now, not the past, she said, and on supporting Riley.
ACC estimates about 35,000 people in New Zealand get a traumatic brain injury, or TBI, each year.
‘‘You work 10 times as hard for him to become individual, to give him the support to give him independence to live his life as normal as possible,’’ Nolan said.
Riley’s always on the go and learns by doing, and it’s amazing for her to see his bin collection idea becoming reality.
‘‘He never really has a dumb idea. Everything he thinks of is pretty logical, and so many people can’t believe it ... He’s so driven and a little go-getter, I suppose you call it.’’
But, for someone who operates on routines, a lot of prep is required. ‘‘He goes by picture. That’s why, doing this, I’ve said to people ... you need to be able to meet him, so he can put your face to the house or face to the bin, or has that connection with something.’’
Nolan printed maps of Waihı¯ Beach to plan his cycle route between homes, and took photos of bin locations so he knew what to expect.
Over the years, she’s read stacks of books and completed programmes and courses to learn how to better support Riley, and set up systems like a visual schedule for his daily routine.
Yet, because the signs of his injury aren’t obvious, people comment without knowing the full picture.
She may be sitting on the supermarket floor with him to calm him down, for example.
‘‘People always approach you and say ‘I think he’s a little bit too old for doing that. You need to stand up and be good for mum’,’’ she said.
‘‘It’s like, if you actually knew, I think you should just leave him alone and just walk away.’’