As the saying goes, it's like riding a bike-- something you'll never forget.

But for children with disabilities, riding a bike is sometimes out of reach.  Until now.

A special camp is helping kids do something many of us take for granted.

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A disabled student smiles while learning to ride a bicycle.

There is something about mastering two wheels that transforms a child.  But for these children the hurdles are greater.  The gains measured in small miracles happening in this Portland school gym.

"Now he's making a game out of running over the cones rather than going around them," laughed volunteer Annie Diess about one student Thomas’s progress.

"A program like this takes us just one step closer to having a full robust active life that everybody craves and the rest of us take for granted," said one child’s mom.

Lose The Training Wheels is the name for this bicycle camp for the disabled, drawing dozens of families from across the US and right here in our own community.

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Just one of the many unusual bikes the program uses to teach children with disabilites.

"The demand was so high there was just no way that we could say no.  And so, yeah, we're back!” said Ann Donaca-Sullivan, one of the organizers.  She’ll tell you that watching a child ride a bike… for the first time... against the odds, sticks with you in a very personal way especially when one of the children is your own.

Last year we watched with amusement as her son Cody put on a show for us.  He got it down, but this year… this year he's riding circles around us.

"They're totally independent which is great," said volunteer Lydia Fischer.

Turns out, there is something about mastering two wheels that transforms a child. It's about seeing the world in terms of what one can do -- taking life by the handlebars and riding off into the summertime.

"I cried yesterday when I saw Nicky ride," said one mother, her voice shaking as she spoke.

"They just blossom, smile.  Amazing things happen to these children," said program founder Richard Klein.