Wiscasset's Sara Estrella rode up Hodge Street Sunday morning, her first time cycling, ever. She will be 26 in July.

How did the sight rank with mom moments for Shawnea Estrella? "It was right up there," alongside getting to see Sara attend prom in 2014 when the family still lived in New Jersey, she said. Sara has not spoken since brain surgery at 5, a failed attempt to stop the seizures Lennox Gastaut Syndrome gives her, Shawnea and Sara's father Ernie Estrella have said.

Shawnea's brother, Illinois pastor Sam Gibb and his machinist friend Bray Dierker welded and otherwise adapted the $300-plus tricycle, giving it stroller-like steering in the back and Velcro straps on the pedals. Monday morning, Sara rode again, this time in a harness Gibb added to keep her safely seated. She stood up during Sunday's ride, Shawnea explained.

Gibb accepted no money from his sister's family for the cycle or its transformation that cost about another $300, Shawnea said. That he would put the time and money into it speaks to the kind of brother and uncle he is, she said.

She said her family, like many others, cannot afford an adaptive cycle. They can start at about $3,000 and the seat and handle bars are extra, she said.

Gibb, 59, said his first thought was to start a GoFundMe page. Then he realized, with the 300,000-plus miles he has biked around the world and his experience working on bikes, the project was something he was meant to do.

Gibb used to bike competitively and for the past 20 years has spent vacations biking around Euope. Biking is the best way to see things and meet people, he said. And biking always felt like freedom to him. He wanted Sara to be able to experience that, too.

Shawnea concurred. Reflecting on Sunday's ride and the cycle's design with a bar from the front to the back where a second person does the steering, she said her daughter doesn't see someone else is doing that part. "It's exciting to see her be able to do something that gives her a sense of independence."

A basket on the cycle carries Sara's Teletubbies, her mother said.