Chicago Bears donate special beach wheelchair to 8-year-old paralyzed in Highland Park shooting

The Chicago Bears recently stepped in to make life easier for a young fan who was paralyzed last year in a mass shooting.

Cooper Roberts suffered a life-altering injury last year during a Fourth of July celebration in Highland Park, a suburb 25 miles north of Chicago. He was watching a patriotic parade with his family when he was hit in the back by a bullet, which shattered his spine. Although he hopes to walk again, Cooper is paralyzed from the waist down.

The young Bears fan is doing physical therapy every day to return his life to where it was before the shooting. But he couldn’t go back to the beach, his happy place. His wheelchair didn’t maneuver well in the sand. So enter the Bears.

On May 31, at a post-practice get together at Halas Hall, players and coaches presented Cooper with a specialiized wheelchair that’ll allow him to have fun at the beach again. The Chicago team invited Cooper’s parents and his twin brother, Luke, as well.

The seat on the chair is a bright yellow, while the wheels are thick and gray. It’s almost like Cooper is riding around in his own, personalized dune buggy.

Bears quarterback Justin Fields pushed Cooper on his first ride.

“We watched everyone freely, happily and joyfully engage with him and make sure that Cooper and Luke both knew that they are in this with him,” said Cooper’s mother, Keely. “Everyone’s in this fight with you, that everyone wants to see you happy, doing the things that you love to do. That’s why today was so special. Cooper felt like those guys on the team genuinely cared about him. We left today blown away, completely blown away.”

Since being paralyzed from the waist down in the Highland Park shooting last year, 8-year-old Cooper has been unable to do his favorite activity: going to the beach

Today at practice, we had a special surprise for him 💙 pic.twitter.com/iTBgMpHjUB

— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) June 1, 2023

Bears donated $160,000 to Highland Park Community Fund

Cooper loves water sports. He also competes for an adaptive swim team. The Bears, along with the organization Devices 4 the Disabled made sure the youngster could enjoy himself with his family when they wanted to have fun at the beach.

And they did so with a surprise presentation.

“I feel like I am a really hard person to surprise,” Cooper’s mother said. “But I did not see that coming. I had no idea. That was a huge surprise. It’s been a huge need.

“It was such an unbelievably not just generous but really thoughtful gesture, and I think that’s probably why it was so emotional for us. It wasn’t just about them giving Cooper and our family this huge gift, it was about a gift so meaningful and so thoughtful for Cooper.

“He loves to swim; it’s something he enjoys. He loves to just be at the beach. It’s a passion of his. Getting to the beach, getting down into the sand, it’s impossible to do in his regular wheelchair. It’s absolutely impossible. It’s one of those things that as a family we never would have been able to really help Cooper with without the use of a beach wheelchair.”

The Bears also helped out the Highland Park community last summer. The team invited the Highland Park football team to attend its training camp. And the Bears also donated $160,000 to the Highland Park Community Fund, which helped the shooting victims and families. Seven people died during the mass shooting, with more than two dozen sent to the hospital.