20 year old man builds roller coaster for 83-year-old grandfather

[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