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Charity, Fraternity & Changing Lives

koc_carl_anderson_05_2007_largeApril 2007 marked several historic events for the Knights of Columbus wheelchair distribution program. 

This was the second year that a contingent of some 25 Knights and their wives traveled from California to Mexico City to distribute wheelchairs on the grounds of the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  Actually the wheelchairs and the mission of the Knights were prominently featured as a part of the high mass on a Sunday morning, including the first reading being delivered by Carl A. Anderson, Supreme Knight of the global order.  This mass was televised to more than 75 million homes in North and Central America, and was presided over by the Vicor General and Rector of the Basilica de Santa Maria de Guadalupe, Monsignor Diego Monroy Ponce.

This event was very special and inspirational on its own, but then came the wheelchair distribution.  Monsignor Ponce and Mr. Anderson participated in the hands on distribution of the wheelchairs, as did Mr. Andersons wife and daughter that accompanied him on this, his first wheelchair distribution.  It was an emotional and heart warming event.  A teenage girl named Funy that received her first wheelchair last year on the altar during the mass, read a letter to Mr. Anderson that described the love and affection she not only feels for the Knights, but that she feels from them.  She described the Knights, the Rotarians that serve as the distribution partners and the Wheelchair Foundation as angels.

This event was also the inaugural participation of the brand new Knights of Columbus council located at the Basilica of Guadalupe.  An enormous amount of effort went into the coordination of the mass and all of the special events that surrounded the distribution of the wheelchairs, and it was very well handled.  Overseeing the activity of the Mexican Knights was William Olivera, State Deputy for Southern Mexico who assisted greatly in the success of the mission.

Since 2001, the Rotary Club of Texcoco de Gante has served as the Wheelchair Foundations primary distribution partner for the Mexico City area, and has coordinated the most efficient and successful delivery of more than 3,000 wheelchairs to date.  The Rotarians have worked for two years now with the Knights from California and Mexico to handle all aspects of the wheelchair distributions with the utmost care and professionalism.  Ok, truth be told, the wives of the Rotarians are actually the ones that do most of the work, but the husbands lift the boxes and follow directions perfectly.  Club President Dr. Daniel Teliz spoke eloquently at the distribution ceremony about how organizations working together to benefit people in need can achieve any goals they may set.

California State Deputy Emilio Moure, Supreme Master Joseph Schultz and State Chaplain Fr. John Grace led the California delegation that included a number of veterans as well as many first time participants in the wheelchair program.
This event brought the number of wheelchairs sponsored by the Knights of Columbus to nearly 10,000 worldwide, and opened doors to an increased level of cooperation between Knights in North America and Knights in other parts of the world.  The Mexican councils have now pledged to raise the funds for half of the 280 wheelchairs per container to their local areas, and the Knights in North America will provide the balance.  The Rotarians have vowed to continue working with the Knights in the distribution process, and have offered to teach them the proven techniques so the Knights can eventually handle distributions on their own.

The Wheelchair Foundation team is very gratified to see great working relationships between organizations serve as the common thread upon which we all are providing Hope, Mobility, Freedom, Dignity and Independence to those in need.

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Joining Hands in China and Vietnam

era_vietnam_china_largeDuring a recent trip to Hong Kong to attend the ERA 2007 Asia Conference, eighteen ERA members, staff and family spent a very wet day on a bus traveling to the city of Guangzhou to participate in a wheelchair distribution.

The Guangzhou Charity Federation arranged to deliver some 40 wheelchairs to a facility that assists children with intellectual and physical disabilities.  The wheelchairs were part of a 350-wheelchair donation that was provided by the ERA for residents of Guangzhou, and pushed the number of wheelchairs provided worldwide by the ERA to over 2,500 in just over one year.

ERA President and CEO Barbara Tulipane spoke on behalf of the ERA at the distribution ceremony which was attended by Wheelchair Foundation chairman Ken Behring and a group of supporters that he brought with him from Hawaii.

The ERA group was invited to a wonderful lunch hosted by the Guangzhou Charity Federation, and then traveled north to visit the primary factory that supplies wheelchairs distributed worldwide by the Wheelchair Foundation.  Either by complete coincidence, or very smart planning on the factory managers part, the wheelchairs that were being assembled were the ERA logo emblazoned ones slated for distribution in South Africa several weeks later.  The group was very impressed with the quality, capacity, efficiency and cleanliness of the facility.

Several days later Steve Pittendrigh, Founder and CEO of InPulse Response Group, its President Lee Swanson, his wife Kathie and Electronic Retailer magazine publisher Gina Mullins-Cohen traveled to Vietnam to help distribute 260 wheelchairs sponsored by InPulse Response Group and their new parent company West Corporation.

The trip to Vietnam was the first for all of the attendees except for Lee Swanson.  He was returning for the first time since being stationed in Vietnam some 38 years ago as an army lieutenant.  This was quite a different reason to be interacting with the people of Vietnam.  Lee and Steve jumped right in when people started arriving to receive their new wheelchairs.  If carrying or lifting was needed, Lee and Steve were the first ones there.  During the seating process and the speeches by the host organization (SAPP) and our distribution partner Roger Ferrell of Kid First Vietnam, it was clear to everyone there that Lee was enjoying this visit.  Lee spoke to the audience of wheelchair recipients, family members and dignitaries about the positive feeling he had in just being there, and there was enthusiastic applause welcoming him and our team as friends of the people in need.  The team received an equal welcome from an 81-year-old veteran of the French war who was wearing his military decorations on his pajamas when we arrived at his home.  As it turned out, his wife had been unable to walk for many years, but his hip injury was very recent.  Now the new wheelchair will be used by both husband and wife for their mobility needs.

The team traveled north to the city of Hue, situated near the banks of the Perfume River.  This beautiful city was our gathering point prior to visiting the Kids First Village in Dong Ha and homes of people in need of wheelchairs.

The distribution of wheelchairs at the Kids First Village resulted in great stories being told of new lives ahead because of the wheelchairs.  The newly designed mountain bike tires on the wheelchairs allowed for great speeds to be achieved during several wheelchair sprints across the terrace. An 18-year-old man told us that now he could try to find work somewhere in the field of computers.  It was believed by several in attendance that his physical disabilities since birth were a genetic result of the chemical remnants of war in the region.

On the way back from Dong Ha the team was allowed to enter a Vietnamese veterans cemetery and memorial.  It is a place of peaceful meditation for many visitors in the course of a week, month or year.  But to the observers of Lee Swanson it was a reflective time in a place that he felt very strongly about visiting.  The events of the previous days allowed Lee to connect on a very human level with people that suffered the struggles of immobility in their lives until his group arrived to change all that.  The gratitude and happiness in the eyes of the wheelchair recipients and their families told Lee, Kathie, Steve and Gina that gestures of peace and friendship need no translation or explanation.  It is tempting to be selfish and hold onto the handshakes and hugs for longer than they last, but the truth is that there are more to be had every time we reach out and change the life of a person and family in need of mobility.

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Wine for Wheels

gordon_holmesAnyone who knows Gordon Holmes, knows he’s passionate about wine. It’s why he left a successful publishing career on Wall Street to start Lookout Ridge winery in Sonoma County. But it wasn’t until he combined his passion with compassion that he made a remarkable discovery.

“When I figured out that a simple thing could change somebody’s life… that is magic,” he says.

Gordon’s moment of truth came when he met Jeff and David Behring – sons of successful East Bay developer Ken Behring, who founded the non-profit Wheelchair Foundation. It was over wine at a Foundation fundraiser that Gordon got involved.

“When they explained to me the number of people around the world that had no mobility and had no chance of mobility, I just felt that there was a magic connection—that I was there for a reason,” says Gordon.

Gordon hit the road with the Behrings to see first-hand the difference he could make by donating wheelchairs.

“The second you put somebody in a wheelchair it changed their life and it changed the family,” explains Wheelchair Foundation President David Behring. “They no longer have to carry their son or daughter around. They can move by themselves. They can go to school. They can return to work… so it has an immediate impact.”

That’s an impact Gordon experienced in his own home, when his wife Kari, diagnosed with MS, first got a wheelchair.

“I saw her regain her mobility and her self respect and independence,” he says. “She was losing it and that’s a very scary thing.”

So Gordon made a decision: for every case of wine his winery sold, he would donate the profit to buy a wheelchair. So far, he’s donated over 500 of them.

“The idea was basically turning the winery into a philanthropic charitable machine, so that every time somebody buys a case of wine, Lookout Ridge Wine, we put someone in a wheelchair who can’t afford it. It’s not about making money.”

On the open market, a wheelchair like the ones Gordon donates costs 500 dollars. But through the Wheelchair Foundation and matching grants, a donation of 75-dollars puts a person in a chair.

The Wheelchair Foundation estimates 100 million people worldwide need wheelchairs but can’t afford one. Gordon plans to make sure his project alone cuts that number down a bit.

“I’d like to see 5 thousand people who don’t have wheelchairs get wheelchairs,” he says.

So for restoring mobility and independence to those in need around the world, this week’s Jefferson Award in the Bay Area goes to Gordon Holmes.

To view a video that aired on CBS Channel 5 (San Francisco Bay Area), click here.

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A Gift to Our Servicemen and Servicewomen

peter_pic_storyDeputy Commander Capt. Bruce Gillingham (in the photo on the right) presented plaques of appreciation from the Naval Medical Center in Portsmouth, Virginia.  The plaques were given to Peter Barnes, Executive Director of Wheelchair Foundation Washington, D.C., his wife, Cheryl, and Greg Hartville of Wilcox Industries (on the left).  This was done in recognition of Wilcox Industries’ donation of 130 wheelchairs to this military hospital.

Airman Edmonson Jacket, a patient at NMCP (seated in the photo), received one of the donated wheelchairs.  As part of the same donation, Wilcox Industries also sponsored 150 wheelchairs to the Womack Army Medical Center in Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

In 2004, the company also sponsored 280 wheelchairs for Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. Wilcox Industries, a defense contractor based in Newington, New Hampshire, is headed by CEO Jim Teetzel, a generous supporter of our nation’s military service men and women.

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In the Service of All Nations

P3160484_largeA group of Princeton Alumni celebrated their 30th graduation anniversary by making a trip to Guatemala and distributing wheelchairs to various communities.  The following story was told by William Farrell, a Princeton alumnus that went on the trip.

The members of the Class of 1977 Community Service Trip to Guatemala were classmates Amy Horbar (with her son Gus), Norman and Jeanne Asher, Donna Freeman (with her husband Bill), Henry Posner III (with daughter Hannah and son Gus), David Behring, and yours truly with my wife Marleny. 

Henry provided an extra treat for us. He is Chairman of Ferrovias Guatemala, the country’s only railroad and we made two wheelchair distribution stops at his stations in the desert. Our first stop was in Guastatoya where we were greeted by a marching band, a homemade cannon and politicians’ speeches. However the best welcome for us was seen in the eyes of the wheelchair recipients and their families. There were not too many dry ones that day.

The average level of education in Guatemala is at the third grade level. We are trying to help change that. Since our last trip 5 years ago classmates have contributed school supplies, books and high school scholarships in Guatemala working with PAVA, a local not-for-profit.  Coincidentally, PAVA is run by Vey Smithers, daughter of the late C. Francis Smithers ‘26.

Our team made ourlast stop at the National Palace in Guatemala City where we made our last distribution of wheelchairs before heading home. Unfortunately I could not get anyone there to raise the Princeton University flag over the palace. That would have made a fine photograph.

We had a great trip and changed many lives.  After catching my breath I will try to put together another Guatemalan trip for later this year as we still have a lot of work to do.  We look forward to our next service opportunity!

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