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link to utv44.com]
NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. (WJAR) — The year 2020 has certainly been a year of "ups and downs,” so it was only fitting for a man to construct a roller coaster in his grandfather's yard in North Kingstown, Rhode Island.
Elliot Ryan, 20, attends St. Michael’s College in Vermont.
In March, he was sent home because of COVID-19, so he went to stay with his grandparents, where he spent the rest of the summer.
It was during the beginning of his stay that he decided to turn a dream into a reality.
"So, it actually really started when I was 8 or 9 years old and I always wanted to build a roller coaster," said Ryan. "My little brother brought it up while we were in quarantine and I thought, 'Well why not'?"
Ryan said he approached his 83-year-old grandfather about the idea.
"I asked my grandpa and he was like, 'Will you build it for me?' I said, 'sure,'” he added. "My grandfather, when he puts his mind to something, he does it, and I wanted to do the same."
"He decided to live a dream which he always wanted to do and that was to build a roller coaster," said his grandfather, Dr. Fred Silverblatt.
Silverblatt is a practicing doctor in South County and a professor of medicine at Brown