INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — An Indiana man is about to hit the road on a 350-mile journey on his bicycle.

It’s to raise money for special wheels for special needs kids.

His goal is to raise funds for adaptive tricycles, giving children with physical disabilities the freedom to ride.

Alex Van Slyke’s journey began early Wednesday in Richmond in east central Indiana on the Ohio border. Over the course of three days, he planned to pedal through Indiana with stops in Louisville, Kentucky, and the Hoosier National Forest before ending his journey in Indianapolis.

“I just came up with a pretty ambitious route and decided that I wanted kind of take it on by myself with all of the challenges that may more may not come up with that, just to symbolize some of the challenges that some of our kids with special needs overcome,” said Van Slyke.

The specialized bikes are often inaccessible to many families in need.

“The smaller ones start at $2500 and the large ones are upwards of $4,000,” said Van Slyke.

Van Slyke is raising money though Anna’s Celebration of Life Foundation, an organization that helps children with special needs such as autism, cerebral palsy, down syndrome.

“It’s something that I’ve seen where the kids get one of these trikes for home and they’re on it every chance they get because it makes their body feel good, it helps decrease pain which we know a lot of kids with Cerebral Palsy specifically have a lot of pain, even as young kids ,so it’s just something we need to continue to push towards,” he said.

So far, Van Slyke has raised $6,000.

“We’re already able to use some of those funds to buy some of those funds to buy a bike for a kiddo in Richmond, Indiana. There’s still funds left on that and hopefully we can kind of continue the progress through the ride itself,” he said.

Van Slyke will document his ride along the way as he hopes to not only raise money, but awareness of the need for more inclusive recreational opportunities.