The Wheelchair Foundation would like to thank Mrs. Vamvouris’s 5th Grade students from Greenbrook Elementary in Danville, California for their support of the Wheelchair Foundation. After working hard collecting and recycling cans to raise money, the students raised enough to sponsor four wheelchairs. Following a brief presentation about the Wheelchair Foundation, the students gathered around the television to watch the video “I Want To Live”. They were, as one student said, “touched” by the video and were amazed of the conditions and circumstances children their age lived in throughout the world. Thanks again for your support and know that because of your generosity you have provided hope, mobility, and freedom to four children around the world.
Articles from the Wheelchair Foundation headquarters in Danville, CA and major news source outlets.
With the holidays upon us and children’s Christmas lists filled with the likes of the iPod shuffle, Game Boy Micro, and Xbox 360, there are three children from Pleasanton, CA with an attitude of gratitude and chose to give rather than receive. For the past year and a half the children have been putting their spare change in a large bucket every time they go to visit grandma. On Tuesday, November 22nd the Wheelchair Foundation was honored to be visited by Ryan Snyder, 10 year old student at Walnut Grove Elementary, Rachel and Emilie Kapp, 11 and 12 year old students at Harvest Park Middle School, and their proud grandmother and father. They also brought with them a Safeway shopping bag filled with change they have been saving. Inside the bag was $225 in small bills and change which they generously gave to sponsor three wheelchairs to children less fortunate than them throughout the world.
Ryan, Rachel, and Emilie began to understand a little bit about how blessed they are to be mobile and to walk freely after they toured the Wheelchair Foundation Gallery at the Blackhawk Plaza. Their eyes were opened to a whole new world as they looked at photos of children from developing countries that were crawling on the ground to go to school and church. Teenagers with only one leg because while out playing with friends they accidentally stepped on a landmine and lost a limb. And adults that were born physically disabled and have never gone outside their homes.
The Wheelchair Foundation would like to thank the Snyder’s and the Kapp’s for their support of the Foundation. The Wheelchair Foundation has currently distributed over 400,000 wheelchairs in more than 140 countries.
*The Foundation is confident that Ryan, Rachel, and Emilie will get many of the items on their Christmas list this year because they truly have been “nice”, not “naughty”.*
A shipment of 560 wheelchairs arrived in Pakistan and was delivered shortly after the earthquake there. The shipment was arranged earlier through a donation from an expatriate Pakistani organization in New York. It arrived in the port of Karachi early in September. The wheelchairs were being transported from Karachi to Islamabad just after the earthquake struck.
Islamabad, the capital city, is 65 miles south of the epicenter of the earthquake. We were able to establish early on that our receiving partner was in good health and functioning, although deeply shocked. It immediately became apparent that the wheelchairs would be needed. Numerous people were injured by collapsing buildings when the earthquake shook them down. An unfortunately large number, already estimated at over 70,000, were killed in the quake. Many more were injured, and many of those injuries will require wheelchairs for those injured by falling buildings and by landslides. It’s a fortunate bit of timing that allowed the Wheelchair Foundation to be able to provide that help almost from the first moment.
This effort is not complete. Much more still needs to be done, as many more people will require short and long term aid. This will involve medical aid, food and water, and shelter in the short term, especially with the harsh winter approaching. In the long term, more permanent shelter will be required, and many of the injured will need wheelchairs and other medical equipment. Wheelchair Foundation is ready to contribute, with your assistance.
Monday, October 17th was officially Sister Cities Wheelchairs for Peace Day in Rowan County and the city of Morehead, Kentucky. Dr. Ewell Scott started the evening by introducing County Judge/Executive Clyde Thomas and Morehead Mayor Brad Collins who read proclamations announcing the Wheelchairs for Peace Day. Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher also sent a proclamation that covered the whole Commonwealth of Kentucky at Senator Walter Blevins’s request.
Betty Cutts, the Yangshuo Sister Cities Committee Chairperson, educated those in attendance of the overwhelming need for wheelchairs in Yangshuo and presented a short video presentation showing Chinese citizens receiving Wheelchair Foundation wheelchairs. The Foundation has currently distributed over 98,000 wheelchairs throughout China, but with a population of 1.6 billion the surface has just barely been scratched. The Chinese government has told the Foundation on several occasions that there are currently over eight million physically disabled citizens in China that need a wheelchair but cannot afford one. The Wheelchair Foundation works closely with the Chinese Disabled Persons Federation (CDPF) and China Charity Federation (CCF) to identify and distribute the wheelchairs in China.
The Yangshou Sister Cities Committee has pledged to raise $6,000 for 100 wheelchairs at $60 each. A delegation from Morehead is also invited to travel to Yangshou for the distribution ceremony to present the 100 wheelchairs when the time comes. Money for wheelchairs was donated to the Wheelchair Foundation at the recent Morehead Sister Cities China Night and leading the list of donors were Jimmy Yang and his wife Judy Zheng, the owners of China Star Restaurant where the event was held.
The speaker for the evening was Wei Bin Zeng from the Louisville, Kentucky Sister Cities. Mr. Zeng spoke about Sister Cities International and his experiences helping to facilitate the Sister Cities relationship between Louisville and their sister city, Jiujiang in Jiangxi Province. Mr. Zeng introduced three Jiujiang visiting scholars, Xiang Jun, Wu Xiaochuan, and Dai Ling Fang, who have been taking classes at the University of Louisville for the last six months.
Wei Bin, a professor at the University of Louisville, traveled with Governor Fletcher during his spring state visit to China to help with translations and arrangements. Mr. Zeng also talked about trade and cultural ties that are being developed between China and Kentucky, and showed pictures of the governor’s trip to Jiujiang.
Morehead and Louisville are the only two cities in Kentucky who have sister cities relationships with Chinese cities. Anyone wanting to donate a wheelchair to Yangshuo, China can send a $60 check made out to the Wheelchair Foundation to Betty Cutts, 106 Timber Lane, Morehead, KY 40351 or call 606-784-4785 for more information.
The Wheelchair Foundation would like to thank Committee Chair Betty Cutts and the Morehead, Kentucky Sister Cities for supporting the mission and goal of the Wheelchair Foundation. If you are interested in getting involved with raising funds to send wheelchairs to China or another country please contact Matt Montague at the Wheelchair Foundation via email at
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Responding to urgent calls for assistance, the Wheelchair Foundation announced it is delivering some 3,200 wheelchairs to victims of Hurricane Katrina.
“We are shipping every available wheelchair in our inventory to Louisiana, Mississippi and other states to help our fellow Americans in this time of crisis,” said David Behring, president of the Wheelchair Foundation. “We are also seeking contributions to speed orders for additional wheelchairs from our suppliers.”
The Foundation has shipped 280 wheelchairs to Houston, Texas, to aid evacuees. “We’re in desperate need of wheelchairs,” said Linda Beason from the Houston Center for Independent Living. “The people of Houston have adopted the evacuees of New Orleans and we want to help them as much as we can, including the ones with physical disabilities and the senior citizens. Thousands had to leave their wheelchairs in order to escape the devastation of the flood. We are very grateful for the 280 wheelchairs we received, but are in immediate need of hundreds more.”
Through the American Red Cross, wheelchairs sponsored by the J. Willard and Alice S. Marriot Family Foundation were donated to sheltered evacuees in Washington, D.C. Additional wheelchairs have been sponsored for people in several states by Wheelchair Foundation Southeast in Florida, Intermountain Health Care and the George S. and Dolores Dore Eccles Foundation in Utah, and over 2,500 by the Imperial Palace Hotel in Las Vegas through Wheelchair Foundation Nevada.
Approximately one million residents have been displaced because of the hurricane and resulting flood; tens of thousands of them are physically disabled and senior citizens. Many were forced to leave their wheelchairs behind as they boarded overcrowded buses headed to Houston and San Antonio. With thousands of evacuees being sheltered in Texas and many more waiting throughout Louisiana and Mississippi to be transported to safety, the need for basic mobility wheelchairs is overwhelming.
As the country watches the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in horror, numerous organizations and government agencies are doing what they can to help. The Wheelchair Foundation is joining in these relief efforts and is seeking your help. For each $150 donation the Wheelchair Foundation can ship and deliver a brand new wheelchair to organizations assisting the victims suffering from this disaster. To make an online donation to benefit victims of Hurricane Katrina, please click below:
To make a donation by mail or by phone, please click here. Please make checks payable to “Wheelchair Foundation Katrina Relief”.
The Wheelchair Foundation is a nonprofit organization leading an international effort to deliver a wheelchair to every child, teen and adult in the world who needs one, but cannot afford one. For these people, the Wheelchair Foundation delivers Hope, Mobility and Freedom. For more information please visit our website at www.wheelchairfoundation.org or call (877) 378-3839.