Introducing the Roamate Community Contribution Award
Roamate has never grown through our work alone. Many of our most useful ideas have come from customers, friends, caregivers, and community members who noticed a problem and took the time to help solve it.
We created the Roamate Community Contribution Award to recognize these contributions and the people behind them.
The award will be presented twice a year to someone who has helped make mobility, travel, or participation in community life more possible for others. Contributions can take many forms, from developing a practical solution and sharing useful knowledge to supporting other community members, advocating for accessibility, or helping us improve Roamate in a way that benefits more people.
Our First Recipient: Tom Manzell
We are very happy to announce Tom Manzell as the recipient of the Roamate Community Contribution Award for the first half of 2026.
Tom worked with us to develop practical ways to load Roamate into a car trunk. This addressed an important real-world challenge: Roamate weighs 37 pounds, and lifting a mobility device of that weight directly into a trunk can still be difficult or impossible for some people.
Tom generously shared his time, ideas, and practical experience with us. He thoroughly tested methods using readily available tools and helped identify practical solutions that could be useful to others in the community.
As the recipient, Tom received a white Roamate equipped with our new footrest. He is also the first person to try the new footrest!
Thank you, Tom, for helping us—and the whole community—move forward.
A Sincere Thank-You to Other Longtime Supporters
Although this award is new, the community support behind Roamate is not.
We are deeply thankful for our longtime customers, especially those who have supported us since our early crowdfunding campaign. People such as David Rich, Julie Pierce, Darrell Drybread, and many others placed their trust in us early, shared their experiences, stayed with us through our development, and helped Roamate become what it is today.
It would be difficult to go back and fairly reconstruct a selection process covering every contribution made during our earlier stages. This does not mean that those contributions have been forgotten or that they mattered any less.
To everyone who has supported us, encouraged us, challenged us, recommended us, or helped us improve along the way: please accept our sincere thanks. We hope this new award will help us recognize these kinds of contributions more consistently from now on.
What Kinds of Contributions Can Be Recognized?
A contribution does not need to be highly public or come from someone with a large audience. We are interested in work that creates a genuine benefit for others.
Examples may include:
- Noticing a recurring problem and developing a safe, practical solution
- Helping another community member answer a question or overcome a challenge
- Sharing an honest personal experience, including what worked and what did not
- Creating a useful guide, checklist, video, or set of instructions
- Developing a better way to use, transport, or care for Roamate
- Identifying accessible routes, venues, activities, or travel methods
- Providing thoughtful product feedback that leads to meaningful improvements
- Testing a new idea or product improvement and sharing useful observations
- Welcoming a new community member and helping them get started
- Connecting someone with helpful information, services, or other community resources
- Organizing an accessible activity, meetup, or form of local support
- Advocating for better accessibility in a community, business, or public space
- Sharing knowledge or experience that helps others participate more fully
These are only examples, not a complete list. We know that some of the most meaningful contributions may take forms we have not yet imagined.
How Recipients Are Selected
The award is presented twice a year for contributions made from January through June and July through December.
Anyone may nominate someone or themselves. Nominees do not need to be Roamate customers, and no purchase is required.
Nominations are evaluated based on:
- Practical results — 25%
- Community benefit & spirit — 25%
- Initiative, effort, and generosity — 25%
- Potential to benefit more people over time — 25%
The Award
The recipient may choose:
- $500 in cash, or
- One Roamate
The Roamate prize may also be given to another person or an eligible community organization.
Second-Half 2026 Nominations
Nominations for contributions made between July 1 and December 31, 2026, close on December 31, 2026. The recipient will be announced in January or February 2027.
If you or someone you know has shared an idea, solved a problem, answered questions, or otherwise helped the community, we would love to hear about it.
Nominate someone for the Roamate Community Contribution Award