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Articles from the Wheelchair Foundation headquarters in Danville, CA and major news source outlets.

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A Helping Hand

This article appeared in the Electronic Retailer magazine March 2006 issues. For a printable PDF version of this article, please click here.

In June 2005, former ERA Chairman Dan Danielson proposed to the Electronic Retailing Association’s (ERA) board of directors an idea that would allow both the association and the industry to give back to the community. “We have a lot of negative [publicity] thrown around about us as an industry, and we wanted to do something positive,” says Danielson, CEO of Mercury Media. The idea was to pick a charity and to put the creative talents, time and skills of the industry to good use.

“ERA has many great volunteer leaders [who] serve as members and board members,” ERA board member and CEO of Northern Response (Int’l), Ltd., Richard Stacey observes. “Many of ERA’s members have been looking to develop ways to ‘give back” and to help others.”

The Wheelchair Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing wheelchairs to those in need, seemed like the perfect fit. “What [is appealing] about this charity,” Danielson states, “is that it’s measurable, like our business. A contribution of $75 is equal to the delivery of one wheelchair – you can see the benefits! The charity is also international in scope.”

Acting on the support he received from the board, Danielson contacted Chris Lewis, director vice president -public education for the Wheelchair Foundation, to learn more about how ERA and the industry could get involved.

WHAT IS THE WHEELCHAIR FOUNDATION?

Established on June 13, 2000, the Wheelchair Foundation began with a simple mission: to deliver wheelchairs to people worldwide who needed them, but were unable to afford one. Lewis says the foundation estimates that over 100 million people in the world are in need of a wheelchair. Almost six years since its formation, the foundation has become the most efficient delivery source of mobility devices in the world.

“It’s a way we can immediately improve the quality of a person’s life with a $75 donation – that’s about what it costs to go out to dinner these days,” Lewis notes. “A lot of people don’t like the fact that you write a check to an organization and you don’t know where the money goes. Everybody knows that a wheelchair costs more than $75, so if you can write a check and see that a tangible item has been delivered for that small donation, [it] means so much.”

Donations are distributed in several ways. Because the organization is sponsor-driven, wheelchairs often are delivered to whatever location the sponsor designates. Corporations like Wal-Mart and Chevron have sponsored wheelchairs into communities where they have operations or partnerships, in an effort to give back. In addition, the foundation also tries to focus on landmine countries. They work closely with the U.S. State Department, which supplies matched funding on a yearly basis, and have sent wheelchairs into Afghanistan, Iraq, Vietnam, Columbia and Cambodia – all landmine hotspots.

Wheelchairs are delivered in containers of 280 directly from factories
in China, the largest wheelchair manufacturers in the world, to non-governmental organizations within the countries of destination. To date, the foundation has delivered or committed over 429,000 wheelchairs. Initially, its fantasy goal was to deliver 1 million wheelchairs in the first five years.

“For many reasons, this [goal] just has not been able to be realized,” Lewis admits, “primarily because of the inability to produce and deliver large numbers of wheelchairs efficiently.

Every country has different importation laws, customs and clearances and they’re constantly changing. When you’re dealing with 145 countries, it’s not like a spigot where you can just open it. If we had unlimited funding, which would be wonderful, we could get a lot more wheelchairs out.”

Lewis is quick to point out that while there are frustrations keeping them from being able to expand as quickly as they might like, “the mechanism by which we’re spreading the word of what we’re doing is by helping a great number of people get involved in the mission, and we’re seeing it as a very steady relief effort.”

Spearheaded by Danielson, ERA’s charitable initiative aims to bolster this relief effort and get as many people involved as possible. Together, he and many other industry professionals are creating a direct response campaign for the foundation. Danielson explains, “We want to bring in not only industry donations, from services to cash, but also to brand the foundation to the public and to bring in cash donations to the foundation through this campaign.”

DR HELPS GENERATE AWARENESS AND SUPPORT

Industry response to this initiative has been extremely positive. A variety of companies have already committed time and services to make the Wheelchair Foundation direct response campaign a success. Production services have already been offered by several firms, in addition to donations for telemarketing, tape duplication, media placement, airtime, international distribution, print and more.

“Being involved in something as worthwhile as this allows us to utilize our considerable talents collaboratively with other ERA members to achieve something that will have a measurable global significance, as well as an incredibly uplifting effect on our agency and all the groups that participate,” says Steve Netzley, president and COO of Euro RSCG 4D DRTV, of the group effort. The agency is one of several firms donating their media buying resources, including Cmedia and Mercury Media. Icon Media Direct is also contributing media placement, reaching out to national cable, network and national syndicators to get them involved in airing the foundation spot. “I think that people in the direct response industry know how to make people respond better than any other industry in the world,” says Nancy Lazkani, Icon Media’s president and CEO.

AN INTERNATIONAL, MULTI-CULTURAL EFFORT

John Bramm, managing director of TV Network UK, agrees with Lazkani. “DR is a powerful medium to raise awareness of a project or product and with a little time and effort dedicated by the entire industry, we could be an important vehicle.” He adds that TV Network’s “aim is to provide all the necessary exposure and treatment that the Wheelchair Foundation and its benefactors deserve. With access to over 150 hours of airtime a day, we are able to reach a huge section of the British public.”

In addition to TV Network UK, other companies have signed on to commit their resources to help make this campaign an international one. Oak Lawn Marketing will contribute resources in Japan and Northern Response (Int’l), Ltd. will assist in Canada. “PanLatinoTV will help bring together the effort in Latin America,” confirms President Stan Bruckheim. “The effort for Latin America will involve local distributors, production facilities, media networks and call centers.”

In addition to making sure that the campaign reaches a variety of countries and cultures around the world, the program also includes efforts to reach the Spanish-speaking community in the U.S. DR company 28:30 LLC “has been asked to handle the management of TV spot placement for the U.S. Hispanic marketplace,” says President Brooke Thomas. The firm will be involved in the conversation of the English productions into Spanish in particular.

SECURING AIRTIME

Stacy Durand, chief marketing officer of Revenue Frontier, LLC, whose company has agreed to donate airtime, is pleased to see the industry focus on a cause like the Wheelchair Foundation and to see such a variety of contributions, including those from competing firms. “We’re a very competitive industry. When you look at the media agencies [involved], these are agencies that pitch against each other every single day. It’s nice to come together for a cause.”

Revenue Frontier is one of several firms currently committed to providing airtime. Paxson Communications, which has provided free short form time to a variety of charitable organizations, including Feed the Children and the American Red Cross, hopes to utilize its family friendly network to help target the campaign’s exact audience. DIRECTV and Discovery Communications are also making substantial contributions.

ADDITIONAL SERVICES

This campaign’s success relies not just on the production, media placement, talent and distribution services being donated. It also requires the significant support of those companies that have agreed to provide services like telemarketing, payment processing, tape duplication and shipment.

Treehouse Media is “contributing customization and duplication of the tnfomercial and/or spots and distributing to the stations,” Vice President Andy Donate details. “We’re incurring those costs. It’s the end of the cycle. After the show’s produced, we have to make these different versions with different numbers and distribute them to the stations.”

Also providing customization, duplication and shipping services is PMT. Bill Hynes, president of PMT, presented his employees with information on the Wheelchair Foundation and asked for their input on the company’s involvement. “Every employee,” he says, “saw this as an opportunity to contribute to a foundation that can make a dramatic difference in a demonstrable and measurable way and is looking forward to the opportunity to utilize every resource we have to make a contribution.”

Companies Currently
Contributing to the Project
Airtime
DIRECTV
Discovery Communications
Revenue Frontier,
LLC Paxson Communications
Credit Card Processing
Transfirst ePayment Services
Donation
Earl Greenburg Foundation
Home Shopping
ShopNBC
International
Canada – Northern Response
(Int’l), Ltd.
Japan – Oak Lawn Marketing
Latin America – PanLatinoTV
United Kingdom – TV Network UK
Internet
Livemercial
Long Form Media Placement
Euro RSCG 4D DRTV Mercury
Media
Long Form Production
Take 2 Productions Print
Novus Print Media
Publicity
Electronic Retailing Association
Radio
Marketing Architects Salem
Radio
Short Form Media Placement
Icon Media Direct Cmedia
Short Form Production
BobCaudill Caudill & Associates
Tape Duplication and Shipment
PMT
Tree House Media
Talent
Jack King Celebrity Broker
Telemarketing
LiveOps
West Corporation
U.S. Hispanic
28:30 LLC

TAKING THE CAMPAIGN TO PRINT, RADIO

The scope of this initiative extends even beyond a long form and short form spot production campaign and distribution. To supplement the DRTV campaigns in generating awareness for the Wheelchair Foundation, several companies have signed on to offer Internet, print and radio services.

One company supplying radio expertise is Marketing Architects. “We’re working in tandem with the other participants by providing strategic input on the program, 800 numbers to measure performance and creative execution. Overall, this will reach well over 10 million radio impressions per month across the country,” says Paul Schield, the firm’s director of business development.

Also widening the campaign’s reach is Novus Print Media. The company’s senior director of business development John Bosacker says, “Novus will be focused on planning and placing donation driven ads for the Wheelchair Foundation in daily paid newspapers (both national and local newspapers) and in national magazines.” Bosacker adds that “overall total circulation could reach in excess of 45 million readers within the scope of the program.”

SETTING AN EXAMPLE AND MEASURING SUCCESS

With the talents of so many companies and industry professionals combined, everyone is hopeful that the campaign will be a success. And just like this industry, Electronic Retailer magazine and ERA will measure this campaign’s success and publish its results throughout the year. This effort is the first of its kind donated to the Wheelchair Foundation, and it provides the opportunity not only to increase donations and participation, but also to elevate awareness of a truly worthwhile cause.

“When an industry pulls together behind a project like this,” Hynes notes, “the industry sets an example of how business can give back to the world community in new ways. Perhaps we can set an example for other industries and give those who need help a different message of who we are.”

HOW YOU CAN GET INVOLVED

With such an extensive project, there is ample opportunity for anyone and everyone to get involved. More information on the Wheelchair Foundation can be found at its web site www.wheelchairfoundation. org. If you are interested in being a part of this industry-wide effort and providing time and services, please contact Dan Danielson of Mercury Media at da*@me**********.com. To instead make a monetary donation, please make checks payable to the Wheelchair Foundation and submit to ERA, Attn: Molly Alton Mullins, 2000 North 14th Street, Suite 300, Arlington, VA 22201.

Kelley Kaufman serves as ERA’s communications manager and publications specialist. We would appreciate your feedback. To submit comments, point your browser to wheelchairfounda-tionmar06.marketing-era.com.

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Wheelchairs Make the World Go Round

ca_state_secretary_largeThis article appeared in the Knights of Columbus Columbia Magazine March 2006 Issue.  For a printable PDF version of this article, please click here.

Ken Behring went as far as he could by cab. Then he got out and hiked through the Vietnamese countryside, pushing the wheelchair he planned to give to a girl he’d never met before. Finally he reached the little house where she lived with her parents.

“This little girl had never been able to walk,” said Behring. “She lay on a pile of rags in the corner. She was about 7 years old and she had never moved on her own.”

That was before she got a wheelchair.

“It took a while, hut we finally showed her how” to use the chair, Behring recalled. “When she finally moved herself, she just broke into the biggest smile there’s ever been.”

This girl was one of the first people to benefit from Behring’s Wheelchair Foundation – and Behring will never forget her, because she showed him that a wheelchair represents more than mobility, more than freedom.

“We’re showing people that somebody cares,” Behring explained. “That they are important.”

THE WHEELCHAIR FOUNDATION

Founded in June 2000, the Wheelchair Foundation buys up to 10,000 wheelchairs a month. They are distributed around the world with the help of distribution partners including the U.S. government, United Nations organizations, and nongovernmental organizations from the Red Cross to Rotary Clubs, and now the Knights
of Columbus. As of early 2006, the Wheelchair Foundation had distributed or committed to distribute nearly 425,000 wheelchairs – but much remains to be done. An estimated 100 to 150 million people around the world are in need of a wheelchair. Fewer than 1 percent own or have access to one.

These are statistics that Behring, former owner of football’s Seattle
Seahawks, discovered after his first wheelchair donation. He had a habit
of carrying relief supplies on his MD-87 jet when he traveled around the world. In 1999, the supplies he took on a trip to Eastern Europe included wheelchairs. When he saw how dramatically – and immediately – a wheelchair could change an individual’s life, the idea for the Wheelchair Foundation was born.

For every donation of $75 the foundation receives, it provides matching funds to purchase a wheel-chair for $150. The chairs are shipped, 280 at a time in massive containers, directly to the destination nation; at last count, chairs have been distributed in 143 countries at no cost to the recipients.

When he started the Wheelchair Foundation, Behring was no newcomer to philanthropy. He established the Seattle Seahawks Charitable Foundation and has donated tens of millions of dollars to numerous causes. But in some ways, the Wheelchair Foundation has been as big a help to him as it has been to the wheelchair recipients themselves.

“I’ve been very successful in my life in business,” explained Behring. “At that point in my life, no longer was there anything I wanted to buy or anyplace to go. I felt there had to be something else.”

Headquartered in Northern California, the Wheelchair Foundation has an international staff of 25 – including two of Behring’s sons – and a board of advisers that includes the king and queen of Spain, Mikhail Gorbachev, Jerry Lewis and Supreme Knight Carl A. Anderson.

A UNIQUE PARTNERSHIP

The California State Council has begun working with the Wheelchair Foundation, even though, as State Deputy Gary Nelson said, it’s “not the most usual thing” for Knights to partner with another organization. But the California Knights are simply following the example of the Supreme Council.

In 2002, Supreme Knight Anderson met a member of the Wheelchair Foundation. By 2003, that meeting had blossomed into a working relationship: the Supreme Council sponsored 2,000 wheel-chairs to be distributed in Afghanistan. In 2004-05, the Supreme Council sponsored 2,000 chairs for distribution in the Middle East, the Philip-pines and Mexico. In 2006, 2,000 more are being distributed in the Philippines, Mexico and Poland.

Also in 2002, the Wheelchair Foundation arranged a meeting with some of the state officers of the California Knights. Don Gentleman, a member of Msgr. Francis X. Singleton Council 10248 in Clovis, attended that meeting. Then a Fourth Degree master and program chair for the state, Gentleman heard about a planned wheelchair distribution in Guatemala. He decided to go along and see for himself what the Wheelchair Foundation is all about.

“Those distributions are so touching. They really yank at your heartstrings,” said Gentleman, now the California State Wheelchair Program chairman.

“One fellow came in. He’d been carrying his wife on his back for 12 years. We put her in a wheelchair, and that man cried like a baby.”

When Gentleman returned to his council and to his work at the state level, he told about his experiences in Guatemala. The California Knights immediately began taking up collections for wheelchairs, but it wasn’t until 2005 that the program began to soar.
The goal for 2005-06 is to donate $96,000 to the Wheelchair Foundation. By early December, about $65,000 had already been raised. In April 2005, a group of California Knights joined Knights of Northern Mexico in a wheelchair distribution in three Mexican cities.

“I am a little amazed at the donations coming in because of the hurricanes and the [Order’s Gulf States Disaster Relief] Katrina fund and all,” Gentleman admitted. “I expected a big, sharp drop, but if anything, we had an increase during that period.”

’MESSENGERS TO THE WORLD’

For Chris Lewis, public education director for the Wheelchair Foundation and son of entertainer Jerry Lewis, the Knights’ partnership is particularly meaningful.

“I’m so tickled, I can’t tell you, about how this has been coming about,” said Lewis, a Knight since 2000. “There are so many like-minded people within the Order who are concerned about improving the quality of people’s lives, and are wondering how they can do it.”

State Deputy Nelson has helped the Knights of California see how they can do it. He asked every KC unit in the state to raise $150 before the end of his term; that means that, with the foundation’s matching funds, each assembly, council, Columbian Squires circle and chapter will fund the purchase of two wheelchairs. Each wheelchair purchased with the help of Knights’ donations bears a Knights of Columbus emblem.

“The thing that benefits us the most is awareness,” said Lewis. “People just don’t believe that you can sponsor the delivery of a brand-new wheelchair for $75. The message that the Knights are carrying to their councils, to their parishes, and outside to the community, is what’s causing so many people to get involved.

“What they have become is our messengers to the world.”

Its not only Knights who are spreading the word about the Wheelchair Foundation. Marilyn Willour, wife of Past State Deputy Ross Willour of St. Columban Council 3926 in Westminster, made a presentation about the foundation at Trinity Episcopal Church in Orange, Calif., where she was the administrator until her recent retirement. “I think people may be tired of me talking about it,” she said with a chuckle, “but I bring up the wheelchairs whenever I can.”

HANDS-ON SPIRITUALITY

A donated wheelchair affects the recipient physically. But the California Knights who went on the distribution trip in Mexico saw very clearly how wheelchairs impact the recipients emotionally and spiritually – and felt how the distribution affected them, too.

Past State Deputy William Przybyla of Redding Council 3978 went to Mexico last year for the foundation’s distribution, and recalls seeing a young man with a spasm condition receive a wheelchair. “To see the father getting tears in his eyes, because now he was going to be able to get his son around – it was very emotional,” said Przybyla. “It didn’t just impact the person receiving the wheelchair; it impacts the family.

“Actually participating in a distribution, you get to see your work come to fruition,” he added. “It really does make you a better person.”

Jim Letcher, Fourth Degree master of the Northern California District, shows a recently produced DVD of the Knights’ wheelchair distribution in Mexico each time he installs new officers for an assembly. “I always get very emotional when I see this movie,” he said. “I talk about how it affects me – how spiritual it is for me to help someone I don’t even know.”

He then passes around a hat so Knights can donate to the Wheelchair Foundation. “By the time the hat comes around, I’ve always had $150 or more,” said Letcher.

The Knights’ partnership with the Wheelchair Foundation may be unusual, but it’s also perfectly fitting, said Nelson, a member of Father Walter O’Brien Council 3518 in San Lorenzo.

“‘In service to One, in service to all.’ This [program] is the ‘all,’” he said.
“It doesn’t matter that they’ve never heard of the Knights of Columbus; what matters is, we can help.”

HOW KNIGHTS CAN HELP

To learn more about the Wheelchair Foundation, go to www.wheelchairfoundation.org. There you can view the video of the California and Mexico Knights participating in the Mexican wheelchair distribution by clicking on “Videos.” To order the DVD from the Supreme Council, contact Columbia magazine at or by e-mail at co******@ko**.org.

To find out how your council can join the Wheelchair Foundation’s efforts to help people in need of wheelchairs, call or e-mail Chris Lewis at cl****@wh******************.org.

Elisabeth Deffner writes from California. Her work has appeared in numerous publications including the Los Angeles Times, the National Catholic Register and Catholic Digest.

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Wheelchair Foundation President David Behring Meets with President Bush Again

david_and_bushWheelchair Foundation President David Behring had the opportunity to meet with President Bush and Laura Bush, along with 14 representatives from other organizations affiliated with providing aid to Iraq and Afghanistan on Tuesday, March 21, 2006 in the Roosevelt Room of the White House.  Some of the topics that were discussed in the meeting follow:

THE PRESIDENT: I want to thank you all for coming. Laura and I have really enjoyed our visit.

We’re talking today to people who have decided to try to help improve the lives of folks in Afghanistan and Iraq. And I just marvel at the fact that Americans from around our country have heard a call to help somebody realize the benefits of freedom. You know, governments can help, and we will help. And obviously, we’ve got a brave military trying to secure freedom in Afghanistan and Iraq. But one of the real powerful parts of developing civil societies in these two countries is the fact that fellow citizens are willing to interface with citizens in Iraq and Afghanistan.

We’ve heard stories about Afghan women education programs and Iraqi Fulbright programs and programs to help hospitals and programs to welcome intellectuals—all aimed at helping these societies that were once brutalized by tyrants realize the great benefits and blessings of liberty. We’ve got—I’m sure a lot of our citizens don’t realize this, but there are thousands of, we call them social entrepreneurs, who are figuring out ways to help improve the human condition in these two liberated countries.

And I want to thank you all very much. It’s heartening to hear your stories and it makes me—once again gives me great reason to be proud of our country and the people who live here. So thank you all for coming. God bless your work.

President Bush sent a thank-you letter to President David Behring which can be viewed by clicking here.

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A Hope for Five Little Stars

DULCE MILAGROS_normalDecember 21, 2005 was a different day in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. The Transmex facilities changed their routine. The drivers and workers exchanged their heavy loads for some light boxes. The drivers’ characteristic fast pace was replaced by a calm walk, and instead of driving heavy trailers, they drove red wheelchairs. Transmex, for one day, stopped delivering machinery and goods, and instead delivered hope.

There were people from different institutions like DIF in representation of the City Hall, Executives of Transmex, and people that never dreamt of going inside this important company. We got this story from an anonymous witness.

“I like large trucks. I dream of driving one when I am an adult. On my way to school, I stop by Transmex. Its doors are always closed, and the security personnel do not allow nosy kids to enter. I wonder what can be inside? From the opposite sidewalk, I see the trailers leaving, loaded with machinery, large boxes containing food and different goods. The drivers look very serious and proud of their trucks. In the back, I can see the very busy workers with their forklifts, feeding the trucks. That’s an interesting world.

“On December 21, I go as always, running to arrive on time at school, but something is happening at Transmex. No trucks are leaving, the doors are open, and strange people arrive, some without legs, some crawling, others who have to be held. Some look sick. I approach the door, and enter without problems. The guards smile. Is this the end of the world?!?!?

“On this day, the drivers don’t handle their trucks, they handle red wheelchairs, and the workers don’t lift heavy loads, they move white boxes where you can read, “Wheelchair Foundation,” and they have a globe painted on. In the back, there is a banner. I read again, “Wheelchair Foundation, Swift-Transmex and DIF.” This must be a party, since there are snacks, sodas and balloons. There are some very elegant people. They have to be the owners of Transmex, perhaps people from the Government. They are delivering wheelchairs to the special people. Among them I see my three classmates, Joseelyn, Itati, and Betzi. They are 11, 10 and 9 years old. Their mother says they have “bones of crystal,” an illness that results in very fragile bones that can break very easily. These girls can’t play the way the other children can. When they’re very sick, they miss school because they can’t walk and their parents don’t have a car. Now, they are happy, smiling, clapping, and they learn to handle their wheelchairs very easily. No longer do they have to miss classes, and they can share outdoor activities with us. Now, they have wings!

“Farther away I see Bryan, a 4-year-old boy who lost a leg in a train accident. It was a great tragedy. Today, his eyes shine again. He will be able to play with his brothers and to return to the Children’s Garden.

“This is a great festival of mobility. All of them are happy with their wheelchairs.

“Dulce’s Mother cries with joy. Dulce is a 6-year-old girl. Her mother says she will no longer have to crawl. Now she can play with her cousins and sisters. Neither will she have to remain at home because mama can no longer carry her.

“Ramiro, who lost his leg due to diabetes, cries with happiness. He now has his personal taxi and can go to the church to teach catechism, reading, and writing to adults.

“Transmex, for one day, abandons the delivery of machinery and goods for the delivery of hope. Today, I didn’t go to school to learn math, but I learned how magnificent it is to share, and that a wheelchair changes not only a life but the life of a family. I also learned that people cry for happiness and gratitude!”

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My Road to Purpose

ken_bui_smilingI know something about suffering, and I know something about hope. 

In 2000, I went to Viet Nam to distribute wheelchairs to physically disabled people. Our party travelled to a small village outside of Hanoi to deliver a wheelchair to a little girl, Bui Thi Huyen. Because of her disability, she had never been able to move herself. She sat terrified and crying on a pile of old rags in her parents’ house. I gave her lollipops, but that did not seem to help. We put her in a wheelchair outside and I showed her how to place her hands on the wheel rims and to move around. She was frightened and tearful, but finally she moved the wheelchair by herself. Then she broke into the biggest smile I have ever seen. All of us around her clapped and cheered.  In a few moments, we had transformed a girl on a pile of rags into a girl who could move about on her own, opening up a whole new life to her. We had given her mobility, freedom, and hope.

That was not the first time I had seen suffering, nor will it be the last. I grew up in the United States in the Great Depression, and saw families suffer from lack of food and shelter. My own parents had lost their farm. But it was not until I witnessed terrible physical suffering in the world that I decided to try to do something about it. I came out of the Depression a very determined and driven young man.

I grew up in rural Wisconsin. And to help make money for my family and myself, I cut grass, delivered newspapers and worked in local stores. My first job after college was selling cars; eventually, I scraped together enough money to open a used car dealership. Soon, through hard work, I opened other dealerships and was on my way to a successful career. By the time I was 30 years old I had sold my business, made my first fortune and had lived the American dream. But that was just the beginning. Seeking warmer weather, I moved to Florida, where I started to build a house for my wife Pat and my five sons. When someone offered to buy it at a big profit before it was finished, I sold it and discovered the potential of the home-building business. In Florida and later in California, I made another fortune in home-building. By the time I was 65, I owned a huge mansion, my own private jet plane and even a professional football team, the Seattle Seahawks. I had everything so everyone thought.

To the outside world, I was a rich, successful businessman, but inside I felt empty. I had all the money I could ever want, all the accomplishments I could ever achieve, and yet something was missing. Material possessions and success did not make me happy or fulfilled. I felt my life had no meaning, no true purpose. At the time, I was flying around the world on my jet, making frequent trips to Africa on hunting safaris. On those trips, my guides would take me to visit schools and health clinicsfacilities that often operated in poor conditions so I began taking medical and school supplies to them on my trips. When charitable organizations learned that I was making these deliveries, one asked me to bring a load of food and supplies to Eastern Europe. The shipment included about half a dozen wheelchairs.

At a stop in Romania, the relief workers invited me on their delivery to a hospital. The director introduced me to an elderly man who had suffered a stroke and could not walk any more. I told him I had brought him a wheelchair so that he would be able to move on his own again. When I helped lift him into the wheelchair, he started to cry.  Through his tears, he explained that he would be free to leave his house to visit with his neighbours when he returned home. All I could say to him was, “I’m happy we could help you”. I was deeply moved. I was stunned that this man and others like him were denied the smallest pleasures – to go outside, sit in the sun, talk with friends – because of their disabilities. The simple gift of a wheelchair had transformed the man’s life.

And it transformed mine. After my trip to Viet Nam and another one to deliver wheelchairs to Guatemala, I decided to start the Wheelchair Foundation. For a small donation, we would deliver a wheelchair to a physically disabled person anywhere in the world. I had found my purpose.  Today, with the support of the United States Government and many non-profit organizations, including the Rotary Clubs and the Knights of Columbus, we are the largest international charitable organization doing this work. Since 2000, we have delivered nearly 400,000 wheelchairs in more than 130 countries.

This mission has brought me in contact with some of the most amazing, inspiring and courageous people on earth:  Xie Yanhong, a Chinese citizen who was born without the use of his legs and who used his wheelchair to travel to England, where he became the first physically disabled person to swim the English Channel; a man in Afghanistan who lost his legs in a landmine explosion and who wanted a wheelchair so that he could go back to work to support his wife and six children; a blind boy in Mexico named Angel, who left me speechless when he told me after we gave him a wheelchair, “I will see you in heaven”; and in South Africa, Nelson Mandela, who is a member of our international Board of Advisors, as are King Juan Carlos of Spain and Mikhail Gorbachev of the Russian Federation.  [You can read more about these incredible people, their stories and the work of the Wheelchair Foundation in my autobiography, Road to Purpose, published in 2004.]

With the Wheelchair Foundation now well established (https://rep.iqj.mybluehost.me), my newest philanthropic cause is clean water. Water sustains life, and safe drinking water is an absolute precondition for overall health and well-being. Many people in developing countries end up in wheelchairs because of unclean water.  According to the United Nations, almost 1.1 billion people have inadequate access to safe water and 2.6 billion are without appropriate sanitation. In real-life terms, that means that 4 of every 10 people in the world do not have access to basic sanitation and nearly 2 in 10 have no source of safe drinking water.

Recognizing that Governments alone cannot address the world’s growing water and sanitation crisis, I have started the WaterLeaders Foundation (http://www.waterleaders.org), which will strive to elevate water and sanitation issues to a more prominent level of global concern to attract serious and sustained funding levels across donors, foundations and the public and private sectors. Its efforts will also focus on resources and organizations in order to maximize their impact. For example, it will initially focus on efforts to deliver appropriate clean drinking water purification technologies to schools in need. Currently, it is researching
small water treatment systems, utilizing ultra filtration, distillation and reverse osmosis, and supporting prototype design and development.

WaterLeaders plans to have a suite of lightweight, durable, low-energy and low-cost technologies available within the next year to deploy in the most cost-effective manner to the appropriate communities. Its initial pilots will be located in China, with expansion to Mexico, Africa and other high priority global regions in need. Finally, WaterLeaders will collaborate with institutions with an interest in water and sanitation to include the development of joint projects and public/private partnerships and offer a clearinghouse of best practices from the field. This effort will include linking together organizations, such as donors, foundations, non-governmental organizations, communities and other stakeholders, to help them achieve their goals.

Our work delivering wheelchairs is far from over, unfortunately.  And our work in providing people with clean, safe water is just beginning. But my journey on my “road to purpose” continues. I hope you will join me on the trip.

Kenneth E. Behring is founder of the Wheelchair Foundation, the WaterLeaders Foundation, the Blackhawk Museum and the Behring-Hofmann Educational Institute.  The owner of the football team, he also established the Seattle Seahawks Charitable Foundation, which benefits children’s charities. He has pledged millions of dollars to the Smithsonian Museum, receiving the prestigious James Smithson Award in recognition of his generosity and vision.  Mr. Behring has made it his personal mission to help those in need, donating food, medical supplies, clothing and educational materials, in the most impoverished nations.

Reprinted with permission of UN Chronicle

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