The Wheelchair Foundation, a division of Behring Global Educational Foundation, a 501(c)3 charitable foundation, has a goal to provide a free wheelchair to every child, teen and adult worldwide who needs one but has no means to acquire one.
Restoring Mobility: How the Wheelchair Foundation Brought Hope to a Local Family
At the Wheelchair Foundation, our mission is to restore mobility and independence to those in need. When we heard about Miguel Silva, a young man with cerebral palsy whose custom wheelchair was stolen in San Jose, we knew we had to help. This is the story of how quick action, community support, and compassion turned a heartbreaking situation into a heartwarming triumph.
A Call to Action:
When our team at the Wheelchair Foundation saw Miguel Silva’s story on ABC7 News, we were deeply moved. Miguel, who relies on his wheelchair to navigate daily life, had lost his custom chair in a car break-in.
“My emotions are: Who is this jerk that took away his gift of life, his gift of mobility?” said Glenn Perry, a Wheelchair Foundation volunteer.
Within 24 hours, we coordinated a donation of a manual wheelchair, ensuring Miguel could continue to live his life with dignity and independence.
TYTANOVI
This is a very unique rehabilitation center in Kyiv where veterans are fitted by bionic prostheses from titanium, a metal which is strong, light, corrosion-resistant, and durable, just like the young men who are training here. Yes, some of them are very young; some have never been on a date. The wheelchairs we brought here are badly needed, but the heroes in this place have no intention of spending their lives in them. Each one dreams of standing on new titanium legs and achieving more in this life with titanium arms, hands, and fingers.
For now, that dream is on hold. First, they must heal, as they wait to be fitted with new limbs. The stitches must heal, the sores from the surgical installation of new prosthetics and metal parts protruding from bones and stumps must heal, the atrophied muscles must be strengthened. It’s work, but they work at it joyfully, racing in wheelchairs, playing basketball, tag, and agility games, and lifting weights. They are training hard for their brothers who are still on the front.
And they are taught another important lesson: they must become independent. They learn how to live, take care of themselves, play sports, cook their own food, and even feed themselves without help.
In the lab here, they are performing scientific and industrial miracles. They’ve already been to an exhibition in Germany, impressing world-class prosthetics manufacturers with their ingenuity, practical skill, and sheer will power. They assemble prosthetics from parts of various global brands, German, Belgian, Korean, American, giving these artificial hands or legs movement, life, function, and utility.
These guys laugh at what others would call hopelessness or difficulty, and when you’re tempted to pity them, they correct you and comfort you, saying, “Don’t worry. After all, here, Tytanovi!” (A play on words in Ukrainian. The phrase means both ‘titanium’ and ‘You are new!’) And indeed, they are new people—people to whom we will forever be indebted for our right to live, speak our native language, work, be friends, and serve.
Peter TUHAIENKO from Kyiv
Peter worked his entire life as a mechanic. He was on his feet all day long. Sooner or later, his legs started to hurt. At first, this responsible man pa
id no attention to what seemed like insignificant problems at the time but it ended with an amputation. Since then, Peter has not been able to move around on his own. But, when it rains it pours, and war came to Ukraine. On the night of August 15, a night like so many since then, Brovary district near Kyiv was hit.
Debris from falling missiles buried people who were sleeping in their homes, among them a man and his 4-year-old son. They were Peter’s son Zhenya, and his grandson, Maksimka. We have no words to express the pain that the grandparents are going through, and there is little we can do to bring back Zhenya and Maksimka, and still a timid smile lit up the faces of the elderly couple when they unpacked the wheelchair and Peter was helped into it by strangers-become-friends from faraway America and the Rotary Club of Kyiv-City. This we can do.
Changing Lives and Making new Friends in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
On July 8th, 2023 the Wheelchair Foundation and Wine for Wheels held a Country Hoedown fundraiser at the beautiful Blackhawk Museum. We had super fun bands: Singer/Songwriter Sadie Bass played outside to welcome everyone and The Brodie Stewart Band played while we danced the night away and enjoyed the amazing evening while raising money. During the auction we offered a trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, to distribute wheelchairs and that started our amazing adventure.
More than 24 people signed up for the distribution trip, and the wheelchairs were ordered. Fondo Unido and the Rotary Club of Puerto Vallarta Sur were instrumental in clearing our wheelchairs with our own Eva Carleton. David Behring, our President, Jeff Behring, Co-founder of Wine for Wheels and I immediately started working with Luz Maria Ortiz with the Rotary Club of Puerto Vallarta Sur to set up this life-changing mission.