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Celebrity chef Robert Irvine will be in Erie to present a next-generation wheelchair to a retired Erie police officer on Sept. 10.

The gift is from Irvine’s foundation, which supports the military and first responders with health and wellness services, grants to help Gold Star families through hard times, scholarships for military children, and, yes, meals, among other services.

The presentation to former Erie police office Tracie Stucke will be private.

But Irvine will host a tasting and bottle signing featuring his signature brand gin and vodka while he’s in Erie.

Tracie Stucke: ‘Everybody knows everybody and helps each other’

Tracie Stucke was a patrol officer with the Erie Bureau of Police from 1986 until Oct. 3, 1995, when a vehicle crash damaged her spine. Confined to a wheelchair, she returned to the police department as a civilian dispatcher and and later worked with the department’s vice and narcotics unit until her retirement in 2018.

She will receive an iBot motorized wheelchair from the Robert Irvine Foundation. Invented by Segway creator Dean Kamen, the iBot has two sets of wheels that can raise users to eye level with others and navigate challenging terrain.

“It’s crazy,” Stucke said. “It even climbs and descends stairs.”

Stucke had looked into buying an iBot after her accident.

“It cost something like $30,000, and that was in 1995,” Stucke said. “Who has $30,000 lying around. So it was, well, when I win the lottery, I’ll get one.”

But this spring, friends heard that the Robert Irvine Foundation was looking for a worthy recipient in the Erie area for its first iBot donation to a first responder. The foundation has provided a number of the mobility devices to wounded military members nationwide.