Bella's Bumbas LTD. began out of the love and support a great aunt and uncle wanted to provide to their great-niece Bella. It was that initial love that has brought us to where we are today.
Bella was born with Spina Bifida and has no feeling below her knees. After seeing how limited she was when it came to mobility, Bella's aunt and uncle began looking for ways to help. They saw the plans for the Bumbo wheelchair online and after seeing the cost of the comparable commercial version, decided to make one for her.
This decision was spurred on by the fact that Bella's family's insurance, like many families, will only cover products that are deemed medically necessary. That along with the fact that insurance companies typically only cover a wheelchair once every five years, a time-frame that if starting at the age of one would result in quickly outgrowing the covered wheelchair.
After building the first chair and seeing just how much joy it brought Bella, simply being able to interact with her siblings and friends and get herself around; we as a family decided that we wanted to make more chairs for other children who are facing mobility challenges. We hand-build each child's chair in our workshop located in Webster, NY with the assistance of many volunteers. We do not charge families for the chairs, we only ask that the families cover the shipping costs. In the United States, the shipping ranges from $62.40 to $74 depending on the seat style chosen. This, however, is only possible with the support of donors who help fund our non-profit.
We hope to be able to stay true to our mission statement, "Global mobility is our mission...", and continue providing mobility at an early age to children across the globe. If you'd like to support our mission, please click one of the donate links located at the top right-hand corner of this page. Every dollar we receive is put back into building a chair for a child in need, be it a child domestically or across the globe.
Bella's Bumbas has now built and shipped over 2,600 chairs to 64 countries across the globe!