Community Helps Teen 'With Heart Of A Lion' Get New Wheelchair

LINDENHURST, NY —Jared Barber is only four feet and eight inches tall but the 16-year-old Lindenhurst high school student impressed many as a running back on the school's football team. Barber has dealt with diabetes his entire life, and in May 2020 he collapsed with an unknown medical issue and is now wheelchair-bound and unable to speak or eat on his own.

Erin Daly-Spano is a lifelong friend of the Barber family and she tells Patch that the response of the Lindenhurst community and efforts to help Barber showed "human kindness and integrity."

Members of the Lindenhurst football team showed up to Barber's home during a snowstorm to make sure the route was clear in case Barber needed to leave for medical reasons.

"His friends from the Lindenhurst schools have done amazing things for him," Daly-Spano said.

"These kids should be recognized. Their parents should be proud...Lindenhurst kids are the epitome of human kindness."

Barber spent months in the hospital and to this day, the cause of the medical event is unknown but was possibly COVID-19 or diabetes related, Daly-Spano explained.

Barber's mother Katie Coleman spent seven months with him in the hospital and a rehab facility. Although doctors recommended he be placed in a rehab facility long-term, she chose to bring her son home, where she now acts as a full-time nurse, Daly-Spano said.

"The day of the blizzard she looked out the window and these kids were out there: 20 kids shoveling the driveway in the wicked winds and cold."

Barber needs a new wheelchair that fits, she said. An online fundraiser has raised $7,912, even more than its original goal of $5,000.

Daly-Spano reports that Barber is doing well and responding to therapies but needs a lot of outside help.

"Every day he's improving. He smiles whenever his friends come around and when his brothers are around."

"Everyone has a T-shirt saying he has the heart of a lion."

Daly-Spano plans to nominate the entire Lindenhurst football team for a scholarship.

"These kids are above and beyond 'the pride of Long Island.'"

Barber's family and friends hope he will be able to graduate with his classmates, and be present on the school field on graduation day with his football teammates, some of which he's played with since he was four years old.

"If you look at the old football pictures he's the littlest one but they said he was tougher than all of them and he still is."