Our friends at Bella’s Bumbas have just announced some terrific news. They’ve concluded their recent fund-raising effort to build a new barn, and thanks to amazing community support, they not only reached, but surpassed their goal.
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 nine years since Marty built the first Bella’s Bumba for their niece Bella, they’ve shipped 3,200 chairs to children in 68 countries, often adapting the chairs for each child’s individual needs, and charging the parents only for shipping.
Till now, they’ve been working 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 how they used their available space. 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.
But now, they’re out of room, which is beginning to hamper their ability to offer life-changing mobility to even more children with disabilities.
So last March they drew up some plans, started talking with contractors, and set their sights on an ambitious goal: to demolish their existing, dilapidated garage and replace it with a 22′ by 30′ garage, complete with a concrete floor, shelving, and lots of room to expand. The whole Workplace Expansion Project, including a new driveway to replace the crumbling one they have now, was estimated to cost $60,000.
The fund-raising began in earnest. Marty and Rebecca created a dedicated GoFundMe page for the project, and started coordinating some special events. They started out with a bang in May when a spaghetti dinner fundraiser hosted by the Webster Masonic Lodge raised more than $3,800.
All spring and summer the donations continued to pour in, from family, friends, neighbors, and anonymous donors, from all over the United States. Some were as small as $2, others in the hundreds. Together with some grants from local organizations, as of last week, the final amount totaled $63,000 — and more than two thirds of those funds raised came from individuals and local businesses, not the grants.
Marty and Rebecca are blown away by the response, and especially wanted to thank:
- Superior Solutions, Computer Works Pro, Maa’s Diner and North Avenue Salon for allowing them to display posters;
- North Avenue Salon for putting out a donation jar, which collected $67 (enough to purchase one of Bella’s Bumbas’ most expensive seats. “That’s a kid rollin,” Rebecca said);
- Golisano Grant Foundation, Lions Camp Smile, Kiwanis Club of Farmington-Victor Foundation and Rush-Henrietta Rotary Interact Club for their generous grants;
- and EJ Paving, Wayne County Metal Roofing and Flower City Waste Removal, who are providing their services at deep discounts.
Now that the funding is in place, the real work has begun. Demolition of the old garage began Monday, and Rebecca hopes everything will be completed by the first week of September.
“We wanted it up before the snow flies,” Rebecca said. Thanks to unbelievable support from the greater Rochester community, that’s gonna happen. Which means not only will Bella’s Bumbas have a new, bigger garage, but even more kids all over the world can receive the gift of mobility.
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(posted 8/26/2025)
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