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The Fantastic Mr. Josh Burroughs

Josh Burroughs in Shanghai, China, at the official handover of wheelchairs sponsored by his Rotary club, the Rotary Club of San Jose, California, for the 2010 World Expo.

Josh Burroughs in Shanghai, China, at the
official handover of wheelchairs sponsored by his Rotary club, the Rotary Club of San Jose, California, for the 2010 World Expo.

Josh Burroughs began his legacy of supporting Wheelchair Foundation in his college days at Cal Poly State University in San Luis Obispo, California.  In August of 2008, Josh was a team leader among a group of students who traveled to Peru to distribute 400 wheelchairs.  The students purchased these 400 wheelchairs through a year’s worth of work as a class project.  Josh was totally overwhelmed by the powerful, life-changing experience of placing someone in a wheelchair, and from that point on, committed to continuing this wonderful work.

In the fall of 2009, Josh again traveled with Dr. Lynn Metcalfe, Professor of Marketing and humanitarian, and fellow students whom she had challenged, guided and encouraged to become philanthropic. This time they flew to Oaxaca, Mexico, to deliver 400 more wheelchairs they had purchased.

Following graduation from Cal Poly, and still smitten by his desire to make a difference in the world, Josh joined the Rotary Club of San Jose, California, and began a career with Barry Swenson Builders. Through his business and Rotary connections, Josh has helped fund and organize distributions in Shanghai, China, and Bangladesh, where Josh and fellow Rotarians visited community centers, hospitals and homes to deliver the gifts of hope and mobility directly to recipients.

Josh in Oaxaca, Mexico, as a Cal Poly student.

Josh in Oaxaca, Mexico, as a Cal Poly student.

This spring, San Jose Rotarians and Wine for Wheels worked in partnership with the Forever Love Foundation and the Department of Social Development and Welfare to arrange wheelchair distributions in Chiang Mai, Bangkok and Chon Buri Provinces in Thailand. Ceremonies were held at rehabilitation centers, a veteran’s hospital, individual homes and a home for the disabled. These home deliveries were especially emotional, allowing the Rotarians to witness first-hand how wheelchairs would help the recipient and family members around their home.

Josh is back to work, championing a new project to send wheelchairs to Croatia. He is a shining example of the philanthropic spirit of a new generation and of how just one person can make a huge difference in the world by helping others and changing lives.

 

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From the Heart: Embracing the Ability to Enable Others

This story is redistributed in its entirety from Alamo Today and written by Jody Morgan. You can read the original article by clicking here.

 

Elizabeth Campos at Montair Elementary found teaching from a wheelchair a daunting experience. Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Campos

Elizabeth Campos at Montair Elementary found teaching from a wheelchair a daunting experience. Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Campos

Thanks to the inspiration of three local men collaborating with the creativity of area educators, 48,000 students in 53 schools are enjoying a fresh approach to Ability Awareness this academic year.  Founders of Del Corazon (From-the-Heart), Don Routh, Josh Routh, and Bill Wheeler, support the curriculum with informative videos, personal presentations, and the loan for a week to each participating school of 10 wheelchairs.  Children learn to appreciate their own abilities and embrace the challenge of enabling others to realize their full potential.  Also known as the Wheelchair Foundation Schools Project, the initiative fosters respect for the strengths of peers coping with intellectual, developmental, and physical challenges, while raising funds to send wheelchair to hundres of individuals who would otherwise remain immobile.

The Wheelchair Foundation, established by Ken Behring in 2000, provides wheelchairs to people around the world who need but cannot afford a wheelchair.  In many countries, a wheelchair costs a worker’s entire annual income.  Todate, 955,000 wheelchairs have been delivered, bringing mobility, dignity, and hope to individuals aged two to over 102.

Since Bill Wheeler, founder of Blacktie Transportation, first invited Don and Josh to join him on a Wheelchair Foundation distribution trip, “the Three Amigos” have made 23 distribution trips to 14 Latin American countries, delivering 72,000 wheelchairs.  Asked to identify his favorite trip, Josh insists: “All of them!” His father, Don, concurs.  Each trip is different, every journey life changing.

Josh demonstrates to wheelchair recipients that their personal goals are achievable.  Doctors predicted Josh, born with Cerebral Palsy, would be a quadriplegic incapable of speech. At 31, he spoke his first word: “Soup!” His indefatigable spirit continues to feed his father’s dedication.  A graduate of San Ramon Valley High School, Josh relies on a wheelchair for mobility.  Now 35, he lives independently, drives his own car to work, and has multiple sports accomplishments to his credit.

In Paraguay, From-the-Heart delivered a wheelchair to another Josh.  Seeing his own son in the four-year old also coping with Cerebral Palsy, Don translated his parental experience into a message of hope for the mother.  Recalling how grateful he would have been for the advice of a mentor, Don happily shares his experience, encouraging care givers to believe in the possibility that their charges will be, likeJosh, successful adults.

In spring 2012, Don Routh presented the concept of a schools program to Pleasanton Unified School District (PUSD) Superintendent Parvin Ahmadi.  Ahmadi immediately recognized the value.  “The potential of this endeavor as a true service learning project was incredible, and it was obvious that the impact to all involved would be profound,” she comments.  “The project allows our students to learn and apply their knowledge while serving others globally.  “Six PUSD elementary schools participated the following academic year.  Six teachers joined a wheelchair distribution tour that summer and all came back as zealous advocates of the program.

Wheelchairs delivered to Costa Rica and Honduras this summer will carry the SRVUSD or PUSD logo, connecting donors and recipient.

Wheelchairs delivered to Costa Rica and Honduras this summer will carry the SRVUSD or PUSD logo, connecting donors and recipient.

The San Ramon Valley Unified School District (SRVUSD) recommended the project to all of its schools for 2013-2014, as did PUSD.  Over the course of four months from late spring through summer, Don worked with Special Needs Parents and SRVUSD professionals to enhance the existing Ability Awareness curriculum to include lesson plans for all grades addressing physical, intellectual and developmental  issues.

Terry Koehne, SRVUSD Communications Director, gladly accepted the task of promoting the program with district principals.  “Don is amazing he provides every ounce of support a school needs, including background information, monthly newsletters, and updates, and makes himself available to do presentations for any group that needs it.  “Support materials include a  17 page book list, movie suggestions featuring characters coping with disability, fun ways to try wheelchairs, and fundraising ideas.  Proud that the fundraising aspect of the program will provide hundreds of wheelchairs to people who lack mobility, Koehne notes, “Providing students with real opportunities to experience the issue themselves gives more meaning to the fundraising component, and inspires them to get even more involved.”

Students and faculty members find Don Routh’s presentation riveting.  He opens up by explaining “There are more than 100 million people with physical disabilities worldwide who are in need of a wheelchair.  Thirty million of these are children and 90% of them do not to to school.”  Lacking mobility, they have no access to education and often no social interaction with other children.  Sometimes they have to crawl to reach basic items beyond their reach.

Montair Elementary School ran the project in October/November, embedding the program in all aspects of academics.  Coin counting supported math, writing persuasive letters to the business community underscored language lessons, and walking into Danville to speak to local business leaders bolstered oral presentation skills.  Dennis Simkin, Vice President, Manager recalls the day the students came to J.Rockcliff.  “I was in awe of how professional and cute they were.  “Simkin estimates that 30 or 40 people came out to hear their presentation.

Taking turns, students participated in a wheelchair basketball game.  When one student finally managed to score, the crowd erupted in cheers.  Elizabeth Campos spent part of a day teaching in a wheelchair and found maneuvering around her classroom a major challenge.  Months later, in February, another school activity highlighted how much the project affected students.  Campos wrote: “At Montair this week we are participating in a No-Name-Calling Week, and as Leadership was discussing ways to promote this, a few students brought up the fact that they actually think name-calling has decreased at school since Ability Awareness and the Wheelchair Foundation project because kids learned to accept others for who they are, no matter what they look like or their abilities.”

8 year-old Alejandro's grandmother carried him to receive his first wheelchair, delivered by From-the Hart in March.

8 year-old Alejandro’s grandmother carried him to receive his first wheelchair, delivered by From-the Hart in March.

Gale Ranch Middle School ran the program in February.  Counselor Lori Olson volunteered to coordinate.  The opportunity for a field trip to the Blackhawk Automotive Museum was a huge incentive for students, and they returned from meeting Wheelchair Foundation President David Behring even morec ommitted to the cause.  Blacktie provides field trip transportation and also stores and delivers the two sets of project wheelchairs.

Student reflections indicate how much Gale Ranch pupils learned spending time in a wheelchair.  One student commented, “Before this I had never really thought about being in a wheelchair, not being able to do things normal people could, and feeling like you are separated from everyone.”  Friends treated them differently.  Another student said, “I now know that people in a wheelchair just wanted to be treated the same way as everyone else.”The value of mobility was clearly recognized.  A third student said,  “When the founder, Don, came to our school, he said not to feel sorry for the people who have wheelchairs but for the people who don’t have one.”

San Ramon Valley High Schoo land Monte Vista are holding Basketball Game Fundraisers showcasing their athletes competing against the nationally ranked BORP Warriors Wheelchair team.  Local teams have volunteered to accept the challenge of playing in wheelchairs.  CarlyLutz, SRVHS Leadership student reports that signupsfor “Ride-in-a-Wheelchair for a Day” are filling up quickly.  Janet Willford, SRVHS Leadership teacher, describes planned lunchtime activities: “a wheelchair relay race, wheelchair bowling, and a pep rally.”

Costa Rica and Honduras (getting Foundation donations for the first time )are slated to each receive a container of 280 wheelchairs at a cost of $42,000 per container.  As of April 17th, $61,258.05 has been collected, with many schools about to commence the project.  Teachers, parents, and older students accompanied by an adult have been invited to come on this summer’s distributions trips.  Ken Behring is awarding stipends of $2,000 toward travel costs to the elementary, middle, and high school achieving the highest per student donations.

Visit www.del-corazon.org for information or to donate.

 

 

 

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A Courageous Veteran Receives Mobility

We received this letter from Emile Meylan, the father of Mariela Meylan, a US Veteran that was injured while serving over seas.

Mariela on graduation day from the US Army.

Mariela on graduation day from the US Army.

My daughter, Mariela, served in the U.S. Military.  She was stationed in Kuwait and was injured in an auto accident while on patrol.  On December 19th, 2004, she and three other soldiers were changing a flat tire on their truck on the side of the road, when their vehicle was hit by a passing motorist.  

The hit-and-run driver fled the scene.  Two of the soldiers that were with her were killed.  My daughter was so severely injured in the accident that she was transferred from Kuwait, to Landstuhl Medical Center in Germany.    My wife, our Son-in-Law and I all traveled to Germany to be with her.  When we arrived on Christmas Day, Mariela was in a coma.

Due to the severity of her injuries, on December 26th she was transferred to Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.  We were invited to fly home with her aboard an Air Evac C141 Flying Hospital plane, along with fifty other soldiers injured in Iraq.  Some were missing limbs, others, like Mariela, were non-responsive.

Mariela in her new sports wheelchair.

Mariela in her new sports wheelchair.

Mariela spent nearly eight months in a coma.  She stayed two years at Walter Reed Medical Center, and was then transferred to the Veteran’s Hospital in Livermore, California, where she would spend another year.  After a year in Livermore’s facility she was allowed tom come home with us. 

Here prognosis was that she would never wake up from her coma, but she did!  It was also thought that she would never regain her ability to walk, but she did!

All of this, we have, thanks to people like Mark Williams, and Matt Beinke and the Wheelchair Foundation. 

Thank you,

Emile Meylan

Thank you Emile for sending us this letter and the pictures of Mariela and THANK YOU Mariela for your service to our country.

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Group raises kids' awareness of disabilities

This article is borrowed from the Contra Costa Times and is shared in it’s entirety. To read the original article written by Robert Jordan click here.

SAN RAMON — Don Routh’s lips still tremble and his eyes fight back tears as he recalls the day 34 years ago when doctors told him that his then 1-year-old son, Josh, would never speak or have use of his limbs.

Doctors diagnosed Josh with cerebral palsy, a developmental disability that is caused by brain damage — usually sustained in the womb or at birth — that affects body movement, according to United Celebral Palsy.

“I was terrified,” said Routh, who adopted Josh when he was two days old. “That was my son and to hear that he would be a quadriplegic was tough. … But you can either bury your head in the sand or you can embrace it.”

Don Routh, of the Del Corazon foundation, speaks to students and teachers Feb. 6 at Green Valley Elementary School in Danville. Del Corazon helps raise money for several charitable causes, especially the Wheelchair Foundation and El Oasis Orphanage.

Don Routh, of the Del Corazon foundation, speaks to students and teachers Feb. 6 at Green Valley Elementary School in Danville. Del Corazon helps raise money for several charitable causes, especially the Wheelchair Foundation and El Oasis Orphanage. Photo by Jim Stevens / Bay Area News Group

Routh has done more than embrace it. He has spent his money and time advocating for people with disabilities. The doctors were wrong about Josh. Josh, 35, lives by himself in San Ramon and works as a clerk at Nob Hill Foods.

Together Routh, Josh and Bill Wheeler, the owner of Black Tie Transportation in Pleasanton, have spent the past nine years highlighting world mobility issues and the need for wheelchairs through Del Corazon, the organization the trio started to partner with the Danville-based Wheelchair Foundation. Del Corazon has delivered more than 7,000 wheelchairs to Mexico and Central and South America.

“Josh was born here, but if he was born in a developing country he would not have had the same opportunities,” said Routh, a retired businessman who was a partner at Pricewaterhouse Coopers. “We are helping give others a fighting chance.”

Last year, the trio incorporated schools into their organization with a program that not only raises funds to buy wheelchairs but also provide students a chance to learn about the situation people with disabilities face in the developing world. More than 109 million people with a disability need a wheelchair in the developing world, according to Del Corazon. With help from the Wheelchair Foundation, Del Corazon can deliver wheelchairs for $150 each.

In its first year at eight schools in Pleasanton, Del Corazon raised $18,000. The program expanded to 50 schools this year in Pleasanton, San Ramon, Danville, Oakland and Hayward with a goal to raise $100,000 this year and eventually expand to other parts of the Bay Area.

“This program was different from a lot of other projects we get,” said Parvin Ahmadi, the Pleasanton schools superintendent. “This one has the potential to be a really good service learning project. It is ongoing, and regardless of how old you are, you can be involved.”

Third-graders, from left, Ava Haubner, 8, and Sidney White, 8, sitting in wheelchairs, eat lunch Feb. 7 at Vintage Hills Elementary School in Pleasanton.

Third-graders, from left, Ava Haubner, 8, and Sidney White, 8, sitting in wheelchairs, eat lunch Feb. 7 at Vintage Hills Elementary School in Pleasanton. Photo by Anda Chu / Bay Area News Group

Routh spent the summer with staff from the San Ramon Valley school district’s Ability Awareness Program developing curriculum based on mobility and wheelchairs that accompanies fundraising efforts that students, parents and teachers participate in. Students from kindergarten to high school have a chance to learn about mobility and wheelchairs through subjects from English to physics.

“Students learned a lot about what it means to help others, and that is just a powerful message,” said Kelly Hoffmann, a second-grade teacher at Bollinger Canyon Elementary in San Ramon. “They learned that if you contribute $2 it can make a difference in another person’s life.”

Bollinger Canyon chose to incorporate the Del Corazon program into its lessons plan for a month and set and met a goal of raising $2.50 per student.

In Pleasanton, the Lydiksen Elementary community was one of the pilot schools and collected more than $5,000 in a month, enough to buy 34 wheelchairs for people in Guatemala. Beyond the service learning and fundraising that the school did, teachers from the school also paid their own way to Guatemala to help Routh, Josh and Wheeler deliver the chairs.

“The first chair we delivered was to a woman who had not been out of her bedroom for six years,” said Kimberly Hereld, a fifth-grade teacher at Lydiksen. “We all cried because for $150 we were able to make a difference, and it was our kids that made that happen.” Routh, Josh and Wheeler, with the help of the Wheelchair Foundation, have delivered wheelchairs to 13 countries in Central and South America and hope to visit all 21 countries, with Honduras and Costa Rica scheduled for July.

Lydiksen Elementary is preparing to raise funds in March to help buy wheelchairs for the Honduras trip. In addition, Del Corazon also scheduled two charity basketball games with Monte Vista and San Ramon Valley High School’s basketball programs playing against the Bay Area Outreach and Recreation Program’s wheelchair basketball team on April 29 and May 6.

All the proceeds go toward purchasing and delivering wheelchairs.

“We get to give kids their freedom back,” Josh Routh said.

“We are so blessed and take for granted what we have.” Added Wheeler, “Josh is the X-factor and sets an example for all the kids,” said Wheeler. “He gets around independently, and the kids see what he can do and say, ‘I am like him.’ ”

Fourth-grader Eddie Park, 9, navigates through his classroomin a wheelchair Feb. 7 at Vintage Hills Elementary School in Pleasanton. Students at the school had the use of 10 wheelchairs to experience what it is like to navigate the campus in one. Photo by Anda Chu / Bay Area News Group

Fourth-grader Eddie Park, 9, navigates through his classroomin a wheelchair Feb. 7 at Vintage Hills Elementary School in Pleasanton. Students at the school had the use of 10 wheelchairs to experience what it is like to navigate the campus in one. Photo by Anda Chu / Bay Area News Group

 

For more information on Del Corazon visit del-corazon.org.

DEL CORAZON

For more on Del Corazon, visit del-corazon.org.
For more on the Wheelchair Foundation, visit www/wheelchairfoundation.org.

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Providing Mobility to Hermosillo, Mexico

In late January Rotary District 5490 visited Hermosillo, Mexico and distributed 110 wheelchairs.   Rebecca Wilks, MD, a Past President of Peoria North Rotary Club, attended the distribution and wrote the below story.

“I have some history with the Wheelchair Foundation.  I’d read Ken Behring’s Book, Road to Purpose. Our club honors High School Students of the Month with wheelchairs donated in their names.  I’d even had (thwarted) plans to join another wheelchair distribution trip to Mexico several years ago.”

“There were 49 of us, Rotarians from Arizona and friends on a bus.  We were lavishly entertained in Hermosillo by our partners in this endeavor, the Hermosillo Pitic Rotary Club.  Like many International Rotary trips, it was as much a cultural exchange as a service trip.”

“Rotary District 5490 has been delivering Wheelchair Foundation chairs to various parts of Mexico for at least a decade.”

“There were 8 Rotarians and spouses from our club, Peoria North Rotary. We helped to deliver 110 wheelchairs that Saturday.  A dozen went to Guaymas to be used short-term on a rotating basis.  We were honored to hear some personal stories from the recipients and to see the power of connection of people across cultures.”

“I’ll let the images tell the stories.”

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