Bears surprised Highland Park shooting survivor at OTAs
The Chicago Bears had a special surprise for a young boy who survived the Highland Park parade shooting last July.
On Wednesday, the Bears welcomed Cooper Roberts and his family to Halas Hall to take in a practice. Cooper was paralyzed from the waist down after being shot in the back in the Highland Park shooting last summer. He was eight years old at the time.
Head coach Matt Eberflus, general manager Ryan Poles and several players, including quarterback Justin Fields, presented Cooper with a beach-accessible wheelchair.
“This young man Cooper loves the beach, and we gave him a beach buggy to get around in there,” Eberflus said.
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
Cooper’s mother, Keely Roberts, was incredibly grateful for the gesture that will go a long way for her son.
“I feel like I am a really hard person to surprise,” said Cooper’s mother, Keely, via ChicagoBears.com. “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.”
After Wednesday’s practice, dozens of players met with Cooper and his twin brother, Luke.
“(Cooper) left there today believing that the Bears players are his friends,” Keely said. “He believes that, and that means something to him, it means something to all of us. Cooper is bolstered by that … It means a lot to me that the players took the time, especially after practice on such a warm day. They didn’t just begrudgingly show up. None of them had to do that. They were so engaged and so kind and so loving towards our boys and showed them such support. It meant the world to us.”
