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A young girl recovers in a wheelchair from the Wheelchair Foundation.

January 20th of 2011 marked the one year anniversary of Wheelchair Foundation’s Plane to Haiti relief flight. The opportunity to join among the world’s first responders to the catastrophic Haitian Earthquake, and to be granted permission to land our two plane loads of medical aid, doctors and nurses, is a testament to the work of Global Health and Education Foundation and all of its’ assets. As quickly as Haiti’s tragedy came to the public eye it soon faded, as other world news took precedence.

Just this week, a little over a year and two weeks following the earthquake, we received word from our partners that nearly all 2,600 wheelchairs we have sent to the people of Haiti have been spread across that country. With the help of CARITAS, the HHS Foundation of the Dominican Republic, Rotarians, The Carlos Slim Foundation and
CODETEL, our wheelchairs have reached Port au Prince, Cayes, Jacmel, Cap-Haitien, Fort Liberte, Jermine, Hinche, Port de Paix, Anse a Veau et Miragoane, and Gonaives.

Our efforts to assist the disabled in Haiti will continue, with 800 wheelchairs sponsored by Rotarians staged in Miami, Florida, awaiting transport to Haiti. We will continue to help, as long as there is a need.

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A LOOK BACK – East Bay Foundation Gives the Gift of Mobility

KGO-TV/DT – Written and produced by Ken Miguel, March 15, 2010.

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.

Read the Full Article on abc7news.com >>

When Chilean Rotarians Brigitte Kusch and her husband, Luciano, had the chance to meet Wheelchair Foundation founder, Kenneth E. Behring, at the Rotary International convention in Los Angles in June of 2008, they were thrilled to have the opportunity to purchase copies of his book Road to Purpose.  In fact, they had the opportunity to speak to Mr. Behring briefly, and have him sign and personalize their copies as well.

Both Brigitte and Luciano felt moved by Mr. Behring’s message of hope, and the personal trials he faced as he sought out the answer to the question of what his “true purpose in life” might be? Road to Purpose afforded them a glimpse into the life that would eventually lead Wheelchair Foundation and Rotary International together in support of helping men, women and children around the world who lack mobility. And both would have an opportunity to personally participate in wheelchair distribution, and witness the miracle of granting others mobility, and see the impact of their own work on wheelchair recipients and their families.

Their experiences with wheelchair distribution allowed them to better understand the significance of their role in caring for their Chilean brothers and sisters, and their fellow man, and brought greater meaning to the work they had already been doing with Rotary. It helped them better see the “purpose” of their efforts.

Flash forward to 2010, when Brigitte and Luciano would return home to Chile, after traveling abroad, to find their home burned to the ground.  An unfortunate mishap lead to a raging fire that consumed nearly everything they owned.  They arrived on site and were told that everything had been destroyed and that a lifetime’s worth of personal belongings were gone.  Still in a state of shock, together they searched through the still smoldering rubble of what was once their home, looking for some significant artifact or relic which they could keep.  Among the charred rubble, lay two slightly burned copies of Road to Purpose.  It caused them to pause and reflect on all of those individuals who had nothing who they were able to help, and realize that all had not been lost.  They both still had their lives, their health and each other.  And beyond any material loss, they had been lucky enough to have gained sense of their purpose here on earth.

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Members of Madera Sunrise Rotary and Madera Rotary clubs were joined by Rotarians from Patterson and Sonora to deliver wheelchairs to the physically disabled in Bolivia who need but cannot afford them.

Working with the Santa Cruz, Bolivia, Rotary Club, a total of 280 wheelchairs were delivered May 12-19.

Local Rotarians, under the direction of Bob Bitter, raised a total of $42,000 to purchase the shipping container of wheelchairs. The wheelchairs were delivered in cooperation with the Wheelchair Foundation, a nonprofit organization.

The Santa Cruz Rotarians, partnered with Madera’s Rotarians, worked with their local social service organizations and physicians to identify persons having a physical condition requiring a wheelchair but not the funds to pay for one. The recipients are issued a certificate and told when to arrive at a local location to receive the wheelchair.

SOURCE: Madera Tribune

El Granada resident Evelyn Moseley, 16, knew only a little Spanish, but had no problem connecting to the young woman in Mazatlan, Mexico, whom she had just lifted into a wheelchair.

In halting Spanish, Moseley asked the Mexican girl about herself — and learned they shared much in common. “I asked her age, and she said 16, and that moment hit me because it (related) to me,” she said. “I imagined my life if I was in that kind of situation. It made me really think more.”

Photo courtesy Millie Golder The Half Moon Bay Interact Club with adults Millie Golder and Darcie Galle, pose with a wheelchair recipient in Mazatlan. Top row from top left, a Foster City Rotarian, Golder, Rose Logan, Emily Kelley, Melissa Kalkin, Genna St. Andrew, Lena King; bottom row, Liana Brinkmeier, Galle, Colleen Flynn, the wheelchair recipient, Anita Oettel-Flaherty and seated in front, Simone Vadroff. Not pictured: Evelyn Moseley, Steve Wilson.

Photo courtesy Millie Golder
The Half Moon Bay Interact Club with adults Millie Golder and Darcie Galle, pose with a wheelchair recipient in Mazatlan. Top row from top left, a Foster City Rotarian, Golder, Rose Logan, Emily Kelley, Melissa Kalkin, Genna St. Andrew, Lena King; bottom row, Liana Brinkmeier, Galle, Colleen Flynn, the wheelchair recipient, Anita Oettel-Flaherty and seated in front, Simone Vadroff. Not pictured: Evelyn Moseley, Steve Wilson.

The situation that brought Moseley to Mexico depended on those kind of connections. Moseley visited Mazatlan with the Half Moon Bay Interact Club Nov. 11 through Nov. 15. She is the president of the club and was on a humanitarian trip that included wheelchair distribution.

Interact is a youth contingent of Rotary International focusing on humanitarian work. The Coastside teens are part of the 80-plus-member Half Moon Bay Interact club, under the guidance of Half Moon Bay Rotarian Millie Golder.

The activities and fundraisers in which the club has been involved, locally and beyond, include brown-bag lunch distribution to the homeless in San Francisco, Adopt-a-Family, beach cleanups, the Teddy Bear Clinic, Candy Land, Rotary regional activities and more.

The club earmarked $3,000 for wheelchairs and school supplies for this, the fourth trip to Mazatlan.

Besides Moseley, local Interactors who made the trip included Liana Brinkmeier, Colleen Flynn, club Vice President Melissa Kalkin, Emily Kelley, Lena King, Anita Oettel-Flaherty, Genna St. Andrews, Rose Logan and Simone Vandroff.

The local teens were chosen for the trip on the basis of their community service hours through club work and were accompanied by Golder, her daughter Darcie Galle and fellow Rotarian Steve Wilson. They were part of a larger group that included members of the Foster City Rotary Club and Interact, under the auspices of the Rotary Wheelchair Foundation and under strict rules protecting the teens.

The trip opened a window into another world for the teens.

“When they leave their parents and go through the gate at San Francisco International Airport, they come back different people when they come through those gates again,” said Golder. “They come back realizing how fortunate we are, how lucky we are to live here.”

During the trip, the Interactors visited local schools supported by the Foster City Rotary club, handing out school supplies and “humanitarian bags” packed with toys for the children, soccer uniforms and trophies for the teens and adult items like cosmetics. They also visited an orphanage that served infants to 18-year-olds.

There was time for fun with Mazatlan peers when the Interactors faced locals for a friendly soccer game. But the heart of the trip was the wheelchair distribution at a large public gym, when the teens assembled around 125 wheelchairs and handed them out to users whose families brought them to the gym.

To reach the many, often bedridden wheelchair users unable to get to the gym, Interactors and adults traveled to frequently impoverished homes, where they were met with tears of gratitude.

It was on one such home visit that Kalkin, also 16, came face to face with what the Mazatlan trip was all about. She had had some idea of what to expect from elder sister Kristin, a recent Half Moon Bay High graduate also involved with Interact. But her sister’s words did not prepare her for all she would feel as she lifted an elderly woman into a new chair.

“The first person I put in a wheelchair was big for me,” said the El Granada teen. “I didn’t understand how much it would impact me, to see how happy they are” to get their chairs.

Often, the Interactors said, the tears of gratitude came from not just recipients and families but caregivers as well.

There was also dinner with the Mazatlan city council and a side trip to paint an elementary school.

And there were the memories, which did not fade.

“It was life-changing,” said Kalkin, noting that the Mazatlan residents she observed seemed happy, even amid poverty. “It was really moving and made me appreciate what I have. If they can be happy with the little they have, I can too, and I appreciate my family more.”

“It made me a more compassionate person, made me live life in a way to be more grateful, more happy in general,” said Moseley.

Making the trip to help the Mazatlan people, she said, was “so different, you can’t compare it to anything else. In the future, I want to experience that feeling as much as I possibly can.”

SOURCE: Half Moon Bay Review

234James Swanson, past president of the Rotary Club of Clayton Valley/Concord Sunrise would like to thank the Wheelchair Foundation for donating a brand new wheelchair to Dick Peppin, who is also a member of the Rotary Club of Clayton Valley/Concord Sunrise.

Dick had been using a wheelchair on loan to him from the Salvation Army.  Way to go to everyone who was involved!