By NEAL WAGNER / City Editor

What started as a way for Shelby Ridge and Rehab Select employee Denise Miller to more efficiently move equipment from one room to another has evolved into something her patients look forward to every day.

For the past few weeks, Miller has been transporting her equipment on a red and white University of Alabama-themed wooden cart built from scratch with the help of her neighbor in Hueytown.

Miller works with the Shelby Ridge restorative department, and travels to several rooms throughout the facility to help patients exercise. Before she built the cart, she had to carry several pieces of exercise equipment to patients’ rooms by hand.

“It took me about three weeks to build it,” Miller said. “I just wanted something to help us get equipment from one room to another.”

The cart features a red and white paint scheme, several Crimson Tide stickers ranging from the script A to houndstooth hats and even a music box playing the Alabama fight song.

The cart is stocked with everything from small barbells to exercise bands and exercise bike pedals.

Miller tours the cart to “a lot” of rooms every day, much to the delight of Shelby Ridge’s patients, she said.

“They love it,” Miller said with a laugh. “Even if they don’t normally come out of their rooms, they will to see the cart. They get really excited about it.”