FRANKLIN, Pa. (EYT) — Rocky Grove senior Travis Perry will be hosting a wheelchair basketball game at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, February 3, at the high school to raise money for equipment for the IU6 special needs gym class.

(Photo: The Edinboro wheelchair basketball team will compete against a team of Rocky Grove coaches and staff Saturday. Photo courtesy of Edinboro University Athletics)

The game will feature the Edinboro University wheelchair basketball team against a team of Rocky Grove teachers and coaches, also in wheelchairs. This is Perry’s senior project.

“This was something someone did a few years ago, maybe six or seven,” Perry said. “My uncle is the coach at Edinboro, and he thought it would be a good idea. He said they do this type of stuff all the time. I thought it would be a good way to raise money for the gym class, help them get money for new equipment.”

The IU6 gym class is a class held at Rocky Grove High School for students with learning disabilities who are from the Cranberry, Franklin, Titusville, Rocky Grove, and Oil City school districts who attend Rocky Grove.

“It’s hard for them to do things because of the lack of equipment,” Perry said. “I was talking to my gym teacher, and he was telling me this have this thing at the YMCA, a color thing, where when you tap it changes color. If we could raise enough money, we could buy one and put it in the fitness center.”

Perry said he has received great support from the teachers at Rocky Grove, even if some of them didn’t know what wheelchair basketball was.

“I was talking to Mr. Lyons (math teacher Jeff Lyons), and he was kind of excited but puzzled about playing in a wheelchair,” Perry said. “But, he is really excited to play. A lot of them are more than happy to play and play against college athlete and see what they go through.”

Wheelchair basketball is similar to regular basketball, but, of course, the players are all in wheelchairs. It is played by people who have physical disabilities that keep them from playing an able-bodied sport. According to the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation, the sport was first played at two United States World War II veterans’ administration hospitals — one at Corona Naval Station in California, and the other in Framingham, Mass. in 1945.

Edinboro has been playing wheelchair basketball for a number of years now, and the Fighting Scots play in tournaments all across the country.

“I was just up there last week to watch a tournament,” Perry said. “They played against a pro team. This is a great opportunity for people in the community to see what it is all about. Most people haven’t seen it or heard about it.”

Perry said he has learned a lot in doing this senior project.

“I’m doing it on my own,” Perry said. “I have a couple of people helping me set up, and there are some families helping out making cookies and stuff, but the planning has been on my own. I have had to learn to be able to communicate well with others. People ask me a lot of questions about how to do things.”

Doors at Rocky Grove High School will open at 5:00 p.m. and the cost of admission is $3.00. Attendees can also make an additional donation.

There will also be a concession stand and a 50/50 raffle.