Impact · From the Ledger
What the workshop actually does.
Seven wagons in rotation across Texas. The Houston Rodeo trail rides. County fairs and parades across the Houston-Brazos region. Ranch routes in West Texas. School-day history runs along the Brazos. Every wagon hand-tooled at the same anvil, seating built for ten, with two wheelchair tie-downs and a white-oak rear-gate ramp.
What Year One looks like.
Healin' Wheels was founded by master wagon-maker William “Kelly” Hicks in 2026. The shop is in Midway, Texas — Madison County, on I-45 between Huntsville and Centerville. The first wagon is on the drafting table — a Conestoga-form covered wagon for ten riders, with two integrated wheelchair tie-downs and a white-oak rear-gate ramp.
We are not going to claim wagons we have not built, rides we have not given, or apprentices we have not yet trained. The first ride is the beginning of the ledger. Until then, our impact is:
- One master wagon-maker still working, in a craft with fewer than a dozen practitioners left in the United States.
- A design that puts accessibility in the wood,not bolted on a grey hydraulic lift — the design we are about to build.
- An open invitation to apprentices, sponsors, and event hosts who want to be part of the first wagon out of the shop.
The Ask
Make the first number on the page.
Sponsoring the first build funds six months of master craftsmanship and puts the inaugural Healin' Wheels accessible wagon on the ground in Texas. Sponsoring a single ride funds a family's afternoon at the rodeo on someone else's wagon while ours is being built. Both are honest, both help.