Greater Buffalo Adaptive Sports helps people with disabilities Ride for Roswell

AMHERST, N.Y. (WIVB) — When Tyler Ball was around 7 years old, he received his first handcycle. For Ball, who has spina bifida, the handcycle gave him a chance to get out of his wheelchair and ride around with his friends around town.

“Being on a bike really allowed me to be just like all of my other friends, and go on bike rides, and go on trails through the park,” Ball said. “This is truly just a recreational thing that you can pick up and learn in a couple hours, and then you can translate it to go out with your family or your friends and just to be active.”

With the help of Greater Buffalo Adaptive Sports, Ball, along with 21 other people with disabilities, will have the chance to Ride for Roswell, as this is the first year that an Adaptive Handcycle Division has been added to the ride.

“I’m really excited to ride for such a good cause, and represent Greater Buffalo Adaptive sports,” said Ball, “It’s so important to stay active as someone with a disability, just be able to build on the ability that we do have,” Ball said.

Just a few days before the ride, Greater Buffalo Adaptive Sports helped fit these riders to the handcycles for their abilities.

Bud Carpenter, a former head athletic trainer for the Buffalo Bills who is now a coach and board member of Greater Buffalo Adaptive Sports, says the day they fit these riders to the handcycles was like their Christmas.

“The greatest satisfaction is to see the smile, it’s not just the smile of the person that’s riding, it’s the smile on the parents watching their child get on a bike for the first time, and be able to participate in the Ride for Roswell, which means so much to Western New York,” Carpenter said. “It’s like the field of dreams, in the movie, they said build it and they will come, well in our case, buy it and we can let them be a part of it.”

These handcycles can range from $5,000 to $12,000 each, and with support from West Herr, the Buffalo Sabres, Highmark, as well as Dr. Yellamraju Kumar and four students, they were able to secure ten more handcycles just in time for the ride.

“We have approximately 56 with spina bifida in the community and in the association with the foundation, we have at least 15 to 20 kids who want to participate and who want to donate for Ride for Roswell,” said Dr. Kumar of Alden Medical Group.

Dr. Kumar, along with Arjun Pindiprolu, Adam Iqbal, Anika Kaur and Sumedha Dondapati, helped raise $15,000 and hope to raise more money for more handcycles in the future.

“Anyone who may be disabled in a certain way, or wants to ride on these bikes can rest easy knowing that they live in an as good as a city as Buffalo, that’s so willing to help them out,” Iqbal said.

“Our long-term goal is to eventually be able to somehow have handcycles around the community,” Adam Page, executive director of Greater Buffalo Adaptive Sports, said. “For people with disabilities and for people, and also the elderly, or people that can’t get on a regular bike for whatever reason, and have handcycles that you can rent.”

To find out more information on The Greater Buffalo Adaptive Sports, and all of their programs, and how you can donate to help their cause, visit their website here. For more information on the Ride for Roswell, visit their website here.

Hope Winter is a reporter and multimedia journalist who has been part of the News 4 team since 2021. See more of her work here .