- G
We are raising funds to give more adaptive athletes and community organizations across Canada the support they need to compete in 2026.
In 2025, the Straz Strong Foundation received 36 applications from adaptive athletes and community organizations across Canada. We could only fund 5. Every application we could not fund was an athlete without equipment or a community without a program.
Here is what your support can make possible:
- $25,000 funds 4 additional grants and nearly doubles our 2025 impact
- $50,000 funds 8 additional grants and more than doubles it
- $75,000 funds 12 additional grants and starts to meaningfully close the gap
Every dollar moves us closer to saying yes to the next athlete on the waitlist.
An Idea of What Your Funding Covers:
- Hockey sled: $1,000
- Custom racing Sit-Ski: $11,000
- Adaptive mountain bike: up to $18,000
- Community organization grants: $5,000 each (covering equipment, facility access, transportation, and operational costs.)
Who We Are
The Straz Strong Foundation funds adaptive equipment, invests in community organizations that create access to sport, and tells athlete stories through the Rise & Defy film series.
Ryan Straschnitzki built this foundation from lived experience. Paralyzed in the 2018 Humboldt Broncos bus crash, adaptive sport gave him a path back to competition. What he found on the other side was a system full of gaps, for elite athletes chasing the podium and for people with disabilities who had never found their way into sport at all. He built this foundation so that gap would not be someone else's story.
What Your Support Makes Possible
We are currently delivering grants to our 2025 recipients. Every dollar raised through this campaign goes directly toward 2026 grant recipients, the next group of adaptive athletes and community organizations waiting for support that changes everything. Through the Rise & Defy film series, we document every journey so donors, partners, and the next person navigating disability can see exactly where their support goes.
From the Athletes We Support
"I wanna do great things and hopefully inspire others to what someone like me can be. What a disabled person can be." — Shay
"The Saddle is a way of getting back what I had. It is not the end of my journey, it is the beginning." — Sabrina Glazier
"When Straz Strong and Shine Foundation were collaborating on this chair, honestly, I was kind of shocked. I didn't believe it was a possibility." — Shay
Then share this page with someone who believes access creates athletes.
Organizer
S
StrazStrong Foundation
Beneficiary