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Around the World and Beyond – A Tribute to Scharleen Colant, 1920-2010

Around the World and Beyond
A tribute to our special friend and role model,
Scharleen Colant
1920-2010

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Scharleen Colant made her first call to the Wheelchair Foundation in 2006. She was aware of our work through her membership in the Rotary Club of San Francisco and wished to become more personally involved. Scharleen was doing a lot of traveling via cruise ships and was headed for Asia.

Joel Hodge, Wheelchair Foundation’s Director of Operations, arranged for wheelchairs sponsored by Scharleen to be available as she traveled to Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand in 2007. At stops in Siem Reap and Bangkok, she traveled inland to accompany her gifts of mobility to their recipients. Scharleen experienced such heartfelt joy in giving wheelchairs that she began saying, “Everyone should have the opportunity to sponsor a wheelchair and give it to someone personally. They have no idea what they’re missing.” In December of 2008, Scharleen and her family celebrated the holidays by accompanying nearly 600 wheelchairs she sponsored for Valparaiso, Puerto Montt and Punta Arenas, and throughout the country of Chile.

Scharleen was a faithful participant at our fund-raising events and wasn’t afraid to get on-stage, give testimonials, encourage donors and pledge more gifts. Inspired by the fact that her late husband Ernest had been a pilot, in 2008 when Captain Sullenberger safely landed the plane in the Hudson River, she called us the very next day to donate a container of wheelchairs for New York in Sully’s honor. She strongly supported veterans and chose to accompany her wheelchairs to veteran’s facilities in northern California, where she entertained the vets with a twinkle in her eye.

Scharleen was truly an extraordinary woman – with a sharp mind and humor. She was compassionate, full of joie de vivre, style, a world traveler and not afraid to do or to ask, always leading by example. She enchanted everyone she met (including all of us at the Wheelchair Foundation) with her beautiful smile and enthusiasm for helping others. She energetically participated in the distribution of the wheelchairs she provided and took great interest in the recipients and their life stories. She loved to dance, and if she wanted to dance, there was no way you were not dancing with her!

One of Scharleen’s last requests was to establish a Wheelchair Foundation fund in her memory. She believed in what we do and she left a bequest in her estate to help provide the power to continue our important mission. We are exceedingly grateful for her generosity.
Scharleen will never be forgotten. Thousands of recipients and their families have new lives, full of hope and possibilities, as a result of the wheelchairs she provided. We at the Wheelchair Foundation remember her as an irreplaceable friend and a role model for a life well-lived. As a tribute to our heroine, we have established a fund in her honor.

The Scharleen Colant Wheelchair Fund
You too can honor Scharleen and her work – with donations to “The Scharleen Colant Wheelchair Fund.” Please indicate “Scharleen Colant” when making donations online, via telephone or by check to:

Wheelchair Foundation,
3820 Blackhawk Road,
Danville, CA 94506

www.wheelchairfoundation.org
Toll-free: (877) 378-3839

“I would go around the world to give a wheelchair to someone if I knew it would help them.“
– Scharleen Colant

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The Gift of Mobility, Power & Independence

The Wheelchair Foundation recently received a touching letter from the fourth-grade school teacher of a young wheelchair recipient named Gabriella. We would like to share this letter, and the joy that it brings, with you as it provides a wonderful example of how together, we are making a difference. Thank you for supporting the Wheelchair Foundation in our efforts to improve the lives of children, like Gabriella, around the world. The letter:

I wanted you to know…

A change has come over Gabriella! She is much more independent, smiles more, and is talking more, and that last one is a miracle. She is writing more, and has more friends now, and well… that wheelchair has just made her feel more powerful and independent, and mobile, and capable. She loves being able to come to school on her own power and her mother is not pushing her in a baby stroller anymore. Her arms are getting stronger, and SHE is deciding when to walk, when to use the wheelchair, and when to use it like a walker. SHE gets around and does not have to wait for someone to push her.

Thank you so much for your gift that has affected us all in many very positive ways!

Denise Aiani
Justin Elementary School
Simi Valley, CA

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Redchair Day at the Expo

“Seeing the Expo from 1-Meter High” Launching Ceremony in China

May 16th is Helping Disabled People Day in China, and it marked the launch of Redchair’s “Seeing the Expo from 1-meter high” Expo program in Jing’an Park.

Redchair’s “Seeing the Expo from 1-meter high” program was launched by the Wheelchair Foundation in 2009, and since then a number of enterprises have participated in the love relay. During the World Expo, Tyco Electronics led the way towards realizing the disabled’s dreams of visiting the Expo by donating 450 Redchairs as well as encouraging employees to volunteer to accompany the disabled on visits to the Expo.

Guests invited to the ceremony included the Deputy Director of the Expo Volunteers Department and Party Secretary of the Communist Youth League Shanghai, Ms. Pan Min; the Deputy Secretary-general of Shanghai Volunteers Association, Mr. Chen Zhenmin; the Vice President of Tyco Electronics, Mr. Gordon Hwang; Executive Chairman of the Wheelchair Foundation, Mr. Steve Beinke; the President of Amcham Shanghai, Ms. Brenda Foster; representatives from Touch Media, Jing’an District; disabled persons and about 100 Tyco Electronics employee volunteers. The ceremony was hosted by Redchair program spokesman, Jin Jing, and Shanghai’s famous TV host, Shi Yan.

When the red silk covering the baton gradually opened, Ms. Pan Min, granted the first baton to a representative of Tyco Electronics. Accompanied by the volunteers, fifty elderly and disabled people sitting on wheelchairs set out to the Expo Park by bus or the subway’s Line 7.

With support from subway volunteers and Expo volunteers, 100 Tyco Electronics volunteers accompanied the elderly and disabled for about 10 hours. Together, using public transportation and wheelchair accessible facilities to visit Expo pavilions. The program participants and volunteers had a great time socializing, eating lunch, and seeing the fascinating sites and pavilions at the Expo.

When visiting the Life and Sunshine Pavilion, one of our special guests, Ji Miwa agreed to an interview by CCTV, ”I’m happy to visit this pavilion, a high-technology lifestyle can improve our disabled people’s quality of life, and with this we can better integrate into the society.”

Both the participants and volunteers enjoyed themselves, and the Wheelchair Foundation looks forward to more community groups joining the Redchair Program to allow more disabled people to enjoy the thrill of “seeing the Expo from 1-meter high

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East Bay foundation gives the gift of mobility

DANVILLE, CA (KGO) — A wheelchair can mean the difference between being bed-ridden or leading a productive life. But in many parts of the world, cost keeps them out of the hands of people who need them. One East Bay charity is hoping to make a difference two wheels at a time.

On the island of San Pedro in Belize, artist Kurt Jason Cruz was attacked in 2006. It left him completely paralyzed.

“I got stabbed in my lower back and neck and was paralyzed for four months and I couldn’t even move from neck down,” he said.

He has regained some mobility, and can now get around thanks to the Danville-based Wheelchair Foundation. The non-profit has given away hundreds of thousands of wheelchairs over the past decade to people in need all over the world. The idea began with developer Ken Behring. Now his sons have taken up the cause.

“The most important thing is to be able to give personally,” said Jeff Behring.

The Behrings organize trips around the world so donors can hand over the wheelchairs in person.

“I think year after year the people that have gone on our wheelchair missions in the past always want to repeat themselves, so we’re getting a larger and larger number of people who want to go with us and personally participate and put people in wheelchairs and give them the gift of mobility,” said Jeff Behring.

“When you see the smiles and tears — I get very emotional,” said David Behring. “When somebody starts crying out of joy, I usually end up breaking down with the family.”

The Wheelchair Foundation buys specially designed wheelchairs in China for about $150.

“They don’t have the money and the resources,” said David Behring. “Many of these people make less than a thousand dollars a year, and in these countries a wheelchair can cost anywhere from $400 to $700.”

Volunteers say seeing the joy in the eyes of those who get a wheelchair is like no experience they have ever had.

“All of a sudden when you put them in a wheelchair you can feel that, you can feel the change, you feel the desire to live and wanting to be and embracing life and do things and it’s just an amazing thing to experience, but it’s an amazing thing to feel,” said volunteer Glenn Perry.

The Wheelchair Foundation is now trying to raise money for 2,000 wheelchairs to send to the devastated regions of Haiti. Every $75 donation is matched and improves the life of one person.

For more information on how you can help, visit www.wheelchairfoundation.org.

SOURCE: ABC 7 KGO-San Francisco

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Plane to Haiti Mission 1 – Full Documentary

Plane to Haiti Mission 1 – Full Documentary from Dan Catullo on Vimeo.

January 27, 2010- DC3 Global, Partnered with the Wheelchair Foundation- Launched it’s first Haiti Relief mission to bring 25 volunteers & medical professionals plus 10,000 lbs of medical supplies to earthquake ravaged Haiti.

This is the story of what every day people can do when they work together to help save lives and rebuild a country.

Please donate to: www.planetohaiti.org

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