Grocer buys special shopping cart for special needs family


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LOGAN — Eli Masco needs more help than most 2-year-olds when it comes to everyday activities. Even playtime often requires a custom chair that helps him sit up.

"He can stand up, but he has a hard time sitting or walking," Eli's mother, Chrissy Masco, explained. "He has hypertonia in his legs and arms, and hypotonia in his core."

The combination of muscular conditions can make a simple trip to the grocery store a major challenge.

"I've tried to hold him and push the cart with my daughter," Masco said. "By the end of the shopping trip, you just want to bawl, and I think no mother should have to feel like that."

Masco recently learned about a cart made just for special needs children, known as Caroline's Cart. The cart features a heavy-duty seat in back, large enough to eliminate the need for a stroller or even a wheelchair. She approached one area grocery store with the idea but never heard back. However, she says management at Lee's Marketplace was much more receptive. Within a month, the new cart arrived. Masco used it for the first time Tuesday.

"Every time I see it, I just get emotional," Masco said. "I'm just so excited for this, and so proud that we can have one in this store to help so many people."

Masco is now enjoying experiences we often take for granted; being able to look at her son face to face while pushing a single cart.

"Whether he's happy or sad or if he's getting frustrated, I'm right here to help him," Masco said.


Every time I see it, I just get emotional. I'm just so excited for this, and so proud that we can have one in this store to help so many people.

–Chrissy Masco


Executives with Lee's say they like the cart, and it's potential to help the community so much, they plan to buy one for their other two locations in Smithfield and Ogden and eventually one for their upcoming store in North Salt Lake.

"It's been very emotional," Lee's CEO Jarad McDonald said, "seeing the connection with this family, and what it has meant to them, and what it's going to mean for the rest of the community. It's been very overwhelming."

McDonald says he had not been aware of Caroline's Cart until Chrissy Masco brought it to their attention.

"It just makes me want to cry," Masco said, looking down at her son in the cart. "It just makes me so happy that we have one now at Lee's."

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