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.

PP Lyall Hood from Gosford West Rotary Club, the current voluntary Executive of Wheelchair Foundation Australia announced this month that with Rotary support, the WFA has received over $200,000 in donations.  This money has been raised by individuals and Rotary Clubs around Australia just in the last eighteen months.  From this fantastic Rotary support 2000 wheelchairs have been delivered to Samoa, Fiji and Papua New Guinea.

At the recent D9520 District Conference held at Broken Hill, $38,000 was raised in one evening.  When PP Lyall was asked what he thought of this amazing fundraising effort he said, It is a real pleasure to see the results of the generosity of Rotarians and Rotary Clubs.  On behalf of the WFA volunteers and the recipients of the wheelchairs, thank you so much.  PP Lyall, never lost for words, also told the audience at the D9520 District Conference that, If every Rotary Club in Australia gave $1000.00 per year to the WFA a supply of wheelchairs could be provided to developing countries in the Pacific at a rapid pace, sufficient to satisfy the mobility problem in the Pacific region.  The World Health Organisation figures state that 6% of Papua New Guinea requires a wheelchair.  The WFA is aiming to deliver over 100,000 wheelchairs to Papua New Guinea.  This will require constant fund raising efforts and a passion to achieve such a huge goal.  The WFA believes that with Rotary support, this is an achievable goal.

PP Lyall informed the District Conference that the wheelchairs delivered to these developing countries by WFA are brand new, purpose built and have a total commercial value of $1.3 million dollars.  The WFA has delivered the 2000 wheelchairs so amazingly cost effectively due to arrangements with manufacturers and shipping agents due to bulk purchasing.  The wheelchairs are bought and distributed via shipping containers.

Two containers have gone to Samoa, two to Fiji and three are on their way to Papua New Guinea.  The wheelchairs are distributed in country by Rotary Clubs and other non-government organisations.  PP Lyall reported that in June 2006, the Apia Rotary Club in Samoa worked in partnership with the Dr Stanley Dean from the Health Department to ensure those most in need received the wheelchairs.  From a container of 280 wheelchairs, the wheelchairs were distributed via various community channels.

Typically, the wheelchairs are delivered in small numbers to towns and villages.  Twelve wheelchairs were delivered to the Little Sisters of the Poor who gratefully received them.  For the first time, elderly Samoans with mobility problems will have the benefit of a wheelchair thanks to the Little Sisters of the Poor, WFA, and Rotarians who donated money for the purchase of wheelchairs.

PP Lyall sated that One wheelchair provides positive relief for at least five people the recipient of the wheelchair and the primary care givers of the recipient, normally family members, have their lives immediately improved.  Giving a wheelchair really changes lives.  He encourages all Rotarians and Rotary Clubs to donate funds to the WFA.  Lyall would like to invite Rotarians to take part in a wheelchair distribution in Papua New Guinea either in 2006, or by donating funds and participating in 2007 or in 2008.  This way, Rotarians can see the difference a wheelchair makes to the recipient – the reaction on the faces of those who receive a chair is priceless.

For further information contact Lyall Hood, Voluntary Executive Director WFA,

ly***@go**************.au