ACTON — At Wild Rose Paintball in Acton, there's a Halloween attraction that's more than just hunting zombies with paint balls, it's also helping raise money to buy a new power wheelchair for eight-year-old Jayden Heising.
Jayden is from Billings and has spinal muscular atrophy, a genetic disease that causes some of his muscles not to develop well.
“It’s a muscle disease. We found out when he was 15 months, so we’ve been doing it for a long time,” said Stephanie Stockfish, Jayden's mother.
Stockfish said Jayden is is on medication and does regular physical therapy to treat his condition and while he can stand, he's still not able to walk.
A new powered wheelchair isn't covered by the family's insurance, Stockfish said. A new chair would have a seat and kick plate that raise up and tilt,
“It would be nice to have the raising up part so he can wash his hands at school," Stockfish said.
Jayden has big goals for when he gets the new chair, he said he's excited to play basketball with his friends.
"I can save my energy where I don’t have to push, I could just move a control stick," Jayden said.
To help start the family off to their fund raising goal, the owners of Wild Rose Paintball will donate a portion of the proceeds from its series of zombie hunt events, Stockfish said. The final nights are coming up on Oct. 29 and 30.
Stockfish said the paintball event was the family's first fundraiser of hopefully many more to come.
"We don't really have a goal right now. This is our first fundraiser. So hopefully we will have more," Stockfish said.
Stockfish said the family's goal is to eventually raise $20,000 to purchase both the wheelchair and an accompanying accessible van.
Stockfish said she's also working to set up a Montana Able account, so people can safely make donations to the family online. To keep up with Jayden and more fundraising events to come, visit his facebook page by clicking here.
To learn more about Wild Rose Paintball, visit its Facebook page by clicking here.
