Big things are happening at Bella’s Bumbas

My regular readers know that I frequently write about Bella’s Bumbas. Today I want to tell you about how this awesome local organization is looking to expand, and could use some help from the Webster community to do so.

Bella’s Bumbas is a non-profit grassroots organization run by Webster residents Marty Parzynski and Rebecca Orr, dedicated to building miniature wheelchairs for children with a wide variety of mobility issues. In the eight years since Marty built the first Bella’s Bumba for their niece Bella, they’ve shipped more than 3,000 chairs to children in 68 countries, often adapting the chairs for each child’s individual needs, and charging the parents only for shipping.

Since the beginning, Marty and Rebecca have been operating Bella’s Bumbas out of a small house just north of the village. As the number of chairs they were building and shipping continued to grow, they got creative with using the space they had available. First the living room was the office and the kitchen the workshop. Then the kitchen was the office and the larger family room was the workshop. Shelves were built everywhere to accommodate all the parts. Bubble wrap and shipping boxes were stacked in every available corner and stuffed into a ramshackle garage and adjacent chicken coop.

For eight years, that worked. But now, they’re out of room, which is beginning to hamper their ability to keep growing and offer life-changing mobility to even more children with disabilities.

So Rebecca and Marty have set their sights on building a new barn, which will accommodate all of their storage and inventory needs and free up valuable space inside the workshop.

The plan is to demolish the chicken coop and the existing garage — which is basically falling over — and replace it with a 22′ by 30′ garage. The new garage (which will be about three times the size of the old one and the chicken coop combined) will have a concrete floor and lots of shelving space, with plenty of room for future expansion. They’re also planning to replace the current (crumbling) driveway, which will be pretty much destroyed during demolition.

Rebecca and Marty have estimated the cost of the entire project to be about $60,000, and they’d really like to have it completed sometime this summer. That’s an ambitious goal, but I know that our Webster community will come together and help them achieve it.

Here are a few ways you can help:

• Attend a Spaghetti Dinner Fundraiser, Friday May 2 at the Webster Masonic Lodge, 30 Orchard St., from 5 to 7 p.m. Cost is $12 for adults, $6 for children and you can eat in or take out (cash only, please). In addition to the dinner, there will be a 50/50 raffle, basket raffles and Bella’s Bumbas merchandise for sale. There will also be some Bumbas there for children to try out.

• Attend the Mr. Batavia Talent Show on Friday April 4 at Batavia High School. Eleven seniors from Batavia High School will compete in this 12th annual competition. Each participant chooses a nonprofit agency to receive a portion of the ticket sales if they win one of the top three spots. This year, Kahler Evans has chosen Bella’s Bumbas as his chosen charity. Tickets are $10 each and will be available at the door.

• Donate directly to the Workplace Expansion Project at this GoFundMe page.

• Send a donation check directly to Bella’s Bumbas LTD, 1170 Ridge Rd. #208, Webster, NY 14580. Please mark “WEP” on the check note to indicate it’s for the Workplace Expansion Project. (Donation receipts provided on request.)

• When the time comes, volunteer to help with some manual tasks during the construction, like cleaning out the old garage. Keep an eye on the Bella’s Bumbas Facebook page for updates.

• Are you a business owner? Gary Inzana from Top Tier Recruiting and Consulting has donated $1,000 and is challenging other businesses to match or exceed his donation and set their own challenge.

And a huge shout-out to the Pennsylvania Grand Chapter Order of the Eastern Star, which has adopted Bella’s Bumbas as one of their state-wide charities in 2025, which means that Bella’s Bumbas will benefit from their fundraising efforts all year long.

Visit the Bella’s Bumbas website to read more about their story and the incredible things they’re doing for our world’s children.

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(posted 3/30/2025)

Tags: Bella's Bumbas, Missy Rosenberry, Webster NY