The three-minute video begins with scenes of children scooting down hallways on their bottoms, inching along on their elbows and crawling through sand.

It goes on to show a grown man carried through the streets and an elderly woman isolated in her bed. All are Third World people who have lost the use of their legs.

The first time he saw the video, Noel Morris leaned over to his wife and whispered, “Can I use your handkerchief?”

“I’m using it,” Sandy Morris replied. The two were attending the 2002 Rotary International Convention in Barcelona, Spain. Noel Morris was incoming president of the Springdale Rotary Club.

He’d had his agenda for the year mapped out, but seeing the Wheelchair Foundation video gave him a new focus. The goal of the foundation is to provide wheelchairs for the estimated 100 million people in developing countries who need them.

Morris invited foundation spokesman Chris Lewis, son of entertainer Jerry Lewis, to visit the Springdale club. Rotarians reached deep into their pockets that day to donate $42,000, enough for two containers, or 560 wheelchairs.
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“It’s been that way for the last four years,” Morris said. “This thing has taken on a life of its own … and become a labor of love for us.”

Rotary International has partnered with the Wheelchair Foundation since 2001. Rotarians have donated 125,000 chairs to people in more than 100 countries. Springdale Rotary is one of the most active clubs in the nation, raising enough money for 3,500 chairs in the past four years. They plan to send another 500 this year.

“For a single club that makes an impact, Springdale is No. 1,” Lewis said. “This is quite an exceptional group of people. … They’ve really taken (our mission) to heart. They decided they wanted to do something to make a serious difference in people’s lives.”

Lewis called Morris the “lynch pin” of the effort, which has lasted beyond his presidency to become a favorite club project. Rotary members such as Gerald Harp and Don Blakeman have also advanced the cause, using their positions in the community to raise awareness and money. Other key players include Rick Barrows, Chris Weiser, Brian Moore and Kelly Bright.

Morris has become the Wheelchair Foundation representative in the central United States, traveling to clubs and conferences as far away as Illinois and Ohio. He’s gotten members of numerous Rotary clubs involved, including Rotarians from throughout Northwest Arkansas.

Sandy Morris is also active, coordinating fund-raisers at J.O Kelly Middle School, where she teaches. Students and faculty raised enough money last year to put 50 people in wheelchairs. Cathy Crouch has coordinated a similar effort at Tyson Elementary School.

Changing Lives

Rotary members travel to Mexico each year to deliver wheelchairs. The trips have become an anticipated part of the program, bringing home the impact of the donations.

Rick Barrows, president of Multi-Craft Contractors in Springdale, recalled his first trip to Tepic. The city of a half million people is a winding four-hour drive from Puerto Vallarta.

Springdale Rotarians worked with members of several local Rotary clubs to distribute the wheelchairs. They gathered in the town square, unboxing wheelchairs before a crowd of onlookers.

“We literally picked people up and put them in their wheelchairs,” Barrows said. “It’s just an incredible experience—something you’ll never forget. It tugs at your heart to see the look of appreciation in people’s eyes. It doesn’t matter if they’re 5 or 75—the looks are so sincere and heartfelt.”

Subsequent trips have been just as moving, Barrows said. The group returned to Tepic the next year. They’ve also visited cities and towns near Cabo San Lucas and Mexico City. They’ll travel to Zihuatanejo near Ixtapa this spring.

A moving memory for Morris was the first time he unpacked a 12-inch wide chair. The foldable chairs come in varying sizes, with big rubber tires to handle unpaved terrain.

“It hit me—there was going to be a child to fit that,” Morris said. “And there was.” Causes for disability vary. They include birth defects, accidents and infirmity. Land mines are a common cause of injury in war torn nations. Angola has the highest disability rate in the world, with 20 percent of its population affected, Lewis said. Puebla, Mexico, which Springdale Rotarians visited last year, has a 5 percent disability rate.

The Wheelchair Foundation concentrates its efforts on developing nations. Social service programs in the United States and Europe take care of people there, Morris said. There is an occasional exception, such as a Springdale immigrant with no health benefits whose family carries him around. Springdale Rotary is working to get him a wheelchair.

The local club has sponsored donations to Mexico, Guatemala, China and Bosnia.

An eloquent spokesman for the work of the Wheelchair Foundation is a man named Javier, who received a wheelchair from the Springdale group on their first trip to Tepic. He returned the next year to thank them again.

“This chair is my life. It’s made me a man again,” he said. He’d fallen from a tree at his work in a banana plantation nine years earlier. He lay in his bed, unable to get around unaided, while his wife worked. With the wheelchair, he was able to attend school and start supporting his family again.

As Javier’s story illustrates, wheelchair donations benefit more than the disabled person. Quality of life improves for the entire family, Lewis said. Caregivers are relieved of their burdens. The disabled person can provide childcare or go to work.

“For every person you put in a wheelchair, there are 10 lives directly affected,” Morris said. He remembers the woman who arrived at the distribution site on a modified skateboard, propelling herself with her hands. Two teenagers accompanied her.

“When we put her in a wheelchair, the kids cried.”

The sturdy, utilitarian chairs would cost $500 in a wheelchair supply store, Lewis said. They’re made available to the foundation for about $150 each. The U.S. State Department offers a matching grant program, so cost per chair to a group like Rotary is $75. Gift certificates are available in the program’s name.

The Wheelchair Foundation sent a video crew to document one of the Springdale group’s trips. “A New Life for All” is available for viewing on the foundation Web site. Other favorite videos are “I Want to Live“—the first one Morris saw—and “A Journey on Common Ground,” a montage of music and images.

The work of the Wheelchair Foundation provides tangible results he’s proud to support, Morris said.

“When you see the smile on somebody’s face, it’s instant gratification. You think, ‘I guess what I did here makes a difference after all.’”

Wheelchair Foundation

The Wheelchair Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing hope, mobility and freedom to disabled men, women and children around the globe.

Founded in 2000 by real estate developer Ken Behring, former owner of the Seattle Seahawks, the foundation has donated more than 550,000 chairs to people in 100 developing nations. The Springdale Rotary Club is a major contributor.

For more information, call Rotary member Noel Morris at 751-7555 or view www.wheeelchairfoundation.org.