Like so many kids, seven-year-old Stella Puzzo adores spending the day at the beach.
“She loves the beach, she loves to swim,” says her mom, Nicole Puzzo. “Swimming is definitely one of her favorite things to do.”
But for the Swampscott family, taking Stella to the beach wasn’t always easy: Stella has spastic diplegia cerebral palsy, and her wheelchair and gait trainer won’t roll over sandy, rocky terrain. Existing solutions were geared toward adults, not children.
But when Nicole’s dad, John Banda, saw what a struggle it was for Stella to get onto the beach, he did what any retired-engineer grandfather would do. He designed a sturdy, lightweight, all-terrain beach buggy with PVC pipe, low pressure tires, and easy-to-clean mesh seating.
Now, the world has opened up to Stella. She does she go to the beach, but also to Loon Mountain, fishing for the first time, and a whole host of other places that previously had been inaccessible to her.
“It just opened up a lot of doors to get her active,” Nicole says. “It was just so nice to be able to do all these different activities with her.”
The buggy, which can roll over sand, rocks, snow, and all kinds of other tough terrain, also got a lot of attention from people who wanted one for their own child.
“We had so many inquiries just locally,” Nicole says. She realized, “I can’t be the only one that needs this, and we have to pay it forward.”
The result? The charitable organization Stepping Stones for Stella.
“We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that donates beach buggies to children with disabilities,” Nicole says. About 200 families throughout the United States have received buggies so far, and dozens more have requested or are waiting for one.
Because the buggies can be expensive to build and ship, and aren’t covered by insurance, Stepping Stones for Stella has devoted itself to fundraising to cover the costs for families. Its first annual Freedom Run, a 5K road race held in Marblehead in June, raised about $14,000, and the organization recently entered into a three-year partnership with NESN to grow the charity further.
Nicole is hopeful that their next major fundraising event, a beach volleyball tournament that’s scheduled for September 10 at Long Beach in Nahant, will be as successful as the road race. She’d like the charity to have two major fundraising events per year.
The beach buggy has changed Stella’s life, but now, Nicole says the buggy program is much bigger than just their family now, and Stella is excited to be part of something that brings opportunities to so many other kids.
“It just makes her feel so good,” Nicole says. “It’s been a nice silver lining with all you go through.”