Matty Bauernfeind has two great passions – Arsenal Football Club and advocating for disability accessibility.
Add a third one to that now – travelling on Waikato’s cycleways with the wind blowing through his hair. Tamahere Lions Club members with Matty Bauernfeind, from left Andrew Scott, Craig Phillips, Matty’s parents Neil and Bernadette, Catherine Scott and Fred Hanson. Photo: Mary Anne Gill. Now thanks to the Lions Tamahere Club, he and other disabled people can travel free from Riverside Adventures base at the Velodrome near Cambridge to anywhere that is accessible by bike.
The London-born 23-year-old tertiary student – who emigrated to New Zealand with his parents Neil and Bernadette when he was one – has cerebral palsy and needs support with everything he does.
He went to school at St Peter Chanel School in Hamilton and then Hillcrest High School before starting at Wintec nearly two years ago where he is studying communications.
He is in the Enabling Good Lives programme which enables disabled people to have greater choice and control over the supports they receive. Matty Bauernfeind is loaded onto the e-trike by mother Bernadette and Lions Tamahere president Craig Phillips watched by member Sue Fookes. Photo: Mary Anne Gill. Making things accessible for him and other disabled people has seen Matty help get a hoist installed at the polytechnic because the disability toilets did not suit his needs.
“My motivation for wanting to leave the hoist at Wintec after I leave is so that other students who have mobility impairments can go […]
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