COEUR d’ALENE — When Devyn Burdett sat in her 2015 Town & Country van for the first time, she called friends Brooke Miller and Debby Carlson.

“We all three sat there crying for a good 10 minutes,” Burdett said. “We just sat in the car. I didn't drive it. I just sat in the dark parking lot and cried. So unreal.”

Miller and Carlson started a GoFundMe campaign in November to raise $31,000 so Burdett could buy a wheelchair-accessible van.

In just five weeks, they had it.

Last week, Burdett and family friend Michael Weniger flew to Pennsylvania to pick up the van and drive it 3,000 miles home.

With family and friends on hand, Burdett showed off her new wheels Thursday outside her Coeur d'Alene office. She was beaming with pride and giving thanks.

“It's been amazing. I picked it up last Friday so I've had it for almost a week now. And I've gotten to go to the grocery store in the rain without any issue,” she said, her Great Dane, Ali, at her side. “There's plenty of room for her and the kids and they're comfortable. We're not squished anymore with the wheelchair and the dog.”

While she drives now by pressing the gas and brake pedals by moving her leg with her hands, hand controls for brakes and gas will be installed.

Burdett, wife and mom of three, lost the use of her legs about two years ago. The active and determined redhead refused to let that slow her down. Last year, she won the title of Ms. Wheelchair Idaho.

But it was a negative incident on a rainy November day that led so many to want to help.

As usual, Burdett had lowered herself from the driver's seat of her 2007 Nissan Murano at a Hayden store and scooted on the ground to retrieve her wheelchair from the back hatch area. Then, she heard voices and looked around.

She saw several younger people watching, some of them laughing and two taking pictures with phones.

Burdett said the incident lasted just a minute or so before the group walked away, and she continued with her grocery shopping.

But she felt the sting of that laughter.

“It was humiliating,” she said.

Friends rallied to make sure it didn't happen again.

“I was the one who got the call the day that the young adults were taking pictures and saying comments,” Debby Carlson said. “When that happened, that was the end of it."

As Burdett’s story spread, the response to the GoFundMe campaign quickly gained support.

An emotional Burdett was touched.

“I never would have asked for this myself. I didn't ask for help. But I am incredibly grateful for the help I have gotten,” she said as her voice trailed off.

The van has about 40,000 miles. With the push of a button, the side door opens and a ramp comes down.

After rolling herself into the van, she secures her wheelchair and easily transfers herself into the driver's seat, which swivels and slides back and forth. Another push of a button raises the ramp and closes the door.

It gives Burdett her independence back.

“I went to a doctor's appointment, I didn't have to wait and call the nurses to come help me,” she added, laughing.

She was in good spirits Thursday as she sat in the driver's seat, demonstrating how she could get in and out of the van on her own.

“I don't have to try to crawl into the front seat or anything," she said. "It comes to me.”

Husband Nick Burdett said it gives his wife freedom.

"To function day to day more normally is awesome,” he said. “It's amazing how the community and everyone came together and made this happen. I really couldn't ask for more.”

Burdett will crown a new Ms. Wheelchair Idaho on March 5. She’s enjoyed the responsibilities that came with the title.

She brought awareness to adaptive tools for those with disabilities.

This summer, she tried out a specially designed paddle board.

She was there when a wheelchair accessible ramp to the Spokane River at Atlas Waterfront Park was unveiled.

She visited schools and spoke to children about service dogs and daily challenges.

She was instrumental in having Coeur d‘Alene’s elected leaders try getting around in wheelchairs downtown.

“I think I did a pretty dang good job,” she said.

She's not done.

Burdett is state coordinator for the Ms. Wheelchair Idaho pageant and is working with others to create a new pageant that is not specific to any disability, but for all disabilities.

"So hopefully, I'll be chairing that up here in June," she said.

And for sure, she'll be driving around town.

Carlson was there when Burdett arrived home with her new van.

“You know that she's never going to have to crawl on the ground again, and nobody's going to sit there and laugh and take pictures,” Carlson said. “I think that's pretty awesome.”