BY SUE MacDONALD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Because he has plenty of determination and a high-quality wheelchair, Mark Trout of Maineville is able to teach math at Milford High School, coach basketball and soccer, attend church, drive a car and be a foster father.
That kind of gratitude is why Mr. Trout, 28, paralyzed nearly eight years ago in a Lake Erie diving accident, is volunteering for this year's Wheels for the World campaign to collect used wheelchairs for needy people in foreign countries.
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IF YOU GO
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What: Wheels for the World campaign to collect used wheelchairs.
When: 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Wednesday.
Where: Fountain Square, downtown.
Miscellaneous: Wheelchairs also will be collected 1-5 p.m. Oct. 3 at TriHealth Fitness & Health Pavilion, Interstate 71 at Pfeiffer Road, Montgomery. Chairs can also be dropped off at all six Tristate Circuit City stores and Lebanon Country Manor & Nursing Rehabilitation Center, Lebanon.
To donate: Call 677-8919.
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In Greater Cincinnati, Wheels for the World volunteers hope to collect 300 chairs and at least $40,000.
Once collected, the wheelchairs are shipped to prisons in Colorado and Tennessee, where they are refurbished and then shipped overseas. People in China, Ghana, Poland and Romania have received donated wheelchairs, and last year's campaign brought in 2,000 chairs nationwide.
"Wheels for the World is not just about restoring wheelchairs, it's about restoring lives," says Donna Hughes, a Loveland woman who is chairing the event locally.
The national campaign was begun in 1994 by a California woman who was injured in a diving accident as a teen-ager. She identified a worldwide need for about 20 million wheelchairs for people with physical disabilities of all kinds.
Cincinnati volunteers will sponsor events from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday on Fountain Square, including wheelchair basketball and an obstacle course. Wheelchairs also will be collected 1-5 p.m. Oct. 3 at TriHealth Fitness & Health Pavilion, Montgomery. Living without a wheelchair in foreign countries is no way to live, Mr. Trout says.
"They're basically outcasts," he explains. "They can't get out unless someone carries them. All of the things I do, I'm able to do because I can get around."
Sheri and Rick Mosier of Celina, Ohio, learned about Wheels for the World on the Internet earlier this summer and were able to donate their son's used wheelchair to the Cincinnati cause. Brett Mosier, 11, has cerebral palsy.
"He was due for a new manual chair, and I said to the vendor where we get the chair, "Do you know anybody who takes old chairs and gives them away? I don't want to sell it. I just want to give it to somebody.' " He directed them to a Wheels for the World Web site.
Mr. Mosier, an accountant, was able to deliver Brett's used chair on a business trip to Cincinnati in August.
Mrs. Mosier is just glad that some child elsewhere in the world will be able to use it.
"Issues like accessibility and wheelchair availability really are problems for people in other countries," she says. "This is a neat idea."
