Cory Buwalda: 2025 Riley Champion
Cory Buwalda marched to the beat of his own drum before he even picked up his first drumsticks.
It’s 2016, and Cory, 6 years old at the time, has just spent the past week away from his Fort Wayne home. He’s lying in bed inside a room at Riley Hospital for Children in downtown Indianapolis with music playing.
It’s fitting he’s singing along to “Feel the Light,” a song by Jennifer Lopez for the animated movie “Home.” “Feel the light, shining in the dark of night,” he sings as his parents, Tracey and Kai Buwalda, watch him smiling as they navigate his recent diagnosis: Crohn’s disease.
“He is Mr. Positivity. He can always put a positive spin on something,” said Tracey. “He’s been like that since he was 2. He’s endearing.”
Cory’s symptoms of Crohn’s disease started showing when he was 5 years old. The Buwaldas ran tests with their pediatrician to eliminate what could be causing Cory’s upset stomach. In the process of connecting with a pediatric gastroenterologist at Riley Children’s Health, Cory suddenly needed immediate attention.
“Cory got really bad, really fast,” said Tracey. “Our pediatrician was like, ‘Get him down to Riley. Get him to the ER.’” Since his diagnosis, Cory has had one other emergency visit to Riley Hospital for Children in 2020. Around that time, he and his brother, Milo, founded the Boys Bracelet Business, a small business selling handmade bracelets with a portion of the proceeds going to Riley Children’s Foundation.
“We love to make bracelets,” said Cory. “Then I thought, ‘Hey, I want to give money to something that way it’s not just all for me.’ Then I thought, ‘Oh, Riley!’ They help me so much that I just wanted to help them.”
Each month, Cory and his dad, Kai, travel to Carmel for Cory’s favorite day, according to Tracey: his monthly medication infusions at Riley Children’s Health at IU Health North. Cory says he loves visiting his pediatric gastroenterologist, Steve Steiner, M.D., and his Riley nurses, who care for him and laugh
at his jokes.
“Cory is a happy, passionate young man who does not let a chronic disease get him down,” said Dr. Steiner. “He brightens every room he enters.”
Cory’s days sometimes come with frustrations that make it hard to smile, but he holds onto a motto he’s repeated the past few years to get through tough situations: I can, and I will.
His positive attitude shines daily, especially when it comes to music, as it did eight years ago. When Cory is not making bracelets, he is with a guitar or drumsticks in hand, likely jamming away to his favorite artist, Dave Matthews Band.
“It’s crazy because as a parent you never want your child to be suffering, and you’d rather always take his place,” said Tracey. “But my husband and I both would joke with Cory that he is handling it better than any of us could. He’s the only one that could handle what he’s handling with a smile on his face and such a positive attitude.”