Patrick Reisert’s sister Gabrielle and his twin Kristen, along with their cousins spent many previous summer days riding bikes between their vacation house to the beach in Charlestown, R.I.

But Patrick, who lives in Newtown, has Down Syndrome, so he was unable to join his sisters’ bicycle rides to the waterside — until this summer.

Thanks to the “I Can Ride” program through iCan Shine, hosted by NYA Sports & Fitness, Reisert, 17, is now biking and hoping to be with his family members on those rides to the beach in the coming weeks.

“It’s definitely given him the confidence to join them,” his dad, John Reisert, said of the benefit of the program.

The iCan Shine bike, swim, and dance programs, according to the website icanshine.org, offer those with disabilities opportunities to experience activities through camps across the country. NYA brought the biking segment of the program to Newtown during the last week of June.

The program was open to those with special needs ages 8 and up, included 75 minutes of biking on a roller bike each day, and culminated with a medal ceremony on July 1.

“It’s so cool,” said Patrick Reisert on the third day of the program, adding that he prefers going fast over slow pedaling even only after a few hours of learning to ride.

“It’s every kid’s dream to be able to ride a bike. To be able to provide that opportunity for this group of individuals is absolutely amazing,” said NYA Executive Director Ian Yorty, who served as a spotter, running the floor with cyclists and, when necessary, grabbing a handle attached to the back of each bike in order to help participants maintain balance.

Fitting It Out

Each bike has a seat, pedals, handlebars, and front wheel just like a traditional bicycle. The difference and key for special needs riders is roller bikes include a replaceable roller which is on the back instead of the rear wheel, to provide stability while participants learn to ride.

There are a handful of increasingly tapered rollers, and the lesser tapered rollers were swapped out for the ones with sharper angles over the course of the first few days of the program — they began with a roller that is smooth and similar to a rolling pin — as bikers worked toward the conventional bike balance experience.

Steven Smucker, a bike technician for the I Can Ride program, watches participants and makes adjustments, helping them get ready to move onto a conventional two-wheel bicycle — an accomplishment for many by the third day. Smucker said the rollers train riders to use their bodies to balance as they transition to regular two-wheel bikes.

Day three was a milestone day for many participants, including Reisert, who worked his way onto a traditional two-wheel bike.

“This is a unique program. I’ve been super-impressed with the progress all the participants have made,” John Reisert said.

“It’s emotional,” Yorty said of seeing such fast progress among biking enthusiasts who, in many instances, never had the chance to pedal before.

NYA President Maggie Conway added: “It’s chilling. It really is. It’s a very emotional program.”

I Can Ride provided a bike technician and floor supervisor. NYA had employees and volunteers who helped out with spotting the biking participants as they did big laps around cones on the NYA basketball court floor.

The program offered multiple sessions each day, and Yorty and the other spotters certainly got a workout after a few hours in one of the days. Yorty has a sports watch that rates his exertion level during workouts and a few sessions of non-stop running to spot participants had his reading up over 20, only previously matched when he did a triathlon, he said.

“Many have not had an opportunity to ride a bike,” said Conway, adding that some of the participants previously had accidents and did not want to get back on a bike before this opportunity. Through this unique program, the participants were not only keeping their balance but also excelling — and accelerating — by the middle of the week.

“I wasn’t expecting to run so much. Some of them can go really fast,” said Erin Walsh, a volunteer spotter who described the program as being a lot of fun for both the spotters and participants. “Biking is a great workout for them, too. I am impressed — some of them were on the two-wheel bikes without the rollers (on day three) which is great.”

Although spotters occasionally had to rotate, “we try to keep them with the same spotters every day so they can start building that bond and that trust,” Conway said.

Future Program Hopes

Conway is hopeful NYA can bring the I Can Ride program back for years to come.

“NYA has supported the community for almost 15 years and inclusivity has always been important to us. For many years, my personal goal as a board member was to offer programs for children and individuals with varying abilities so they too could experience what their family, friends and neighbors experience when participating in sports,” Conway said.

“The question was always ‘was there a need?’ Our district offers the amazing Unified Sports Program at the higher grades but not at the lower grades, so our board of directors wanted to fill that void,” she said, adding that in October of 2019, NYA hosted its first Adaptive Sports program and introduced 12 children to a variety of sports.

“Fast forward four years and we run our program between three and four times a year and we are going strong. Our participants are not only from Newtown but from neighboring towns. As I began my research, I learned about iCan Bike and bringing the program to NYA was a goal. We held our annual golf outing last year and all funds raised were earmarked for the Adaptive Sports program making it possible to host iCan Bike,” Conway said.

Factoring in the equipment, including bicycles, staffing, and hotel accommodations, the week-long I Can Ride program costs about $10,000, Conway said. NYA used money raised through the golf fundraiser to offset the cost, requiring each participant to pay only $150 for the week.

“A lot of participants are thrilled that we have the program because this program isn’t readily available in a lot of towns due to the cost,” said Conway, adding that people came from as far away as East Hartford and parts of New York.

“The iCan Bike program is a must-have and one of the most rewarding and emotional experiences one will have. It is a gift to witness the progression in a participant in just the first three days. Some parents who thought their child would never ride a bike now have hope that they can and will succeed,” Conway said.

“A lot of the parents have asked us to bring it back next year,” said Conway, adding that NYA plans to do more fundraising to make this event a reality again in 2023.

Sports Editor Andy Hutchison can be reached at andyh@thebee.com.