Wednesday, September 15, 1999
Program shares wheelchairs worldwide
BY SUE MacDONALD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Donna Hughes wants people to expand their concept of recycling to include wheelchairs.
She's coordinating this week's kickoff of the Tristate's second annual Wheels for the World campaign, in which local volunteers accept used wheelchairs for repair and shipment overseas to some of the millions of people who need them.
“We took in about 250 wheelchairs during our drive last year, and throughout the entire year we shipped out about 500 total,” says Ms. Hughes, of Loveland. “The word's slowly getting out, and people are thinking about us, instead of the Dumpster, when they have a wheelchair that they've outgrown or don't need any more.
“Cincinnati did great last year, but we're still trying to recoup as many as we can,” she says. “There are hundreds and hundreds of wheelchairs out there that we'd like to tap into, especially pediatric equipment.”
Most wheelchairs for U.S. children are custom-made, she points out, and very few are available in Third World countries.
Starting Saturday through Sept. 25, wheelchairs of all kinds can be dropped of at six Tristate Circuit City stores and several other locations. Hader Hardware stores are accepting donated tools for the repair program, from spoke wrenches and pliers to tire patch kits, safety glasses and duct tape.
Wheels for the World is a national non-profit organization founded in 1994 by a California woman who was injured as a teen-ager in a diving accident.
Donated wheelchairs — those that people have outgrown, are slightly broken, no longer needed or belonged to people who have passed away — are shipped to prisons in Tennessee and Colorado, where supervised prisoners repair and renovate them.
The renovated chairs are then shipped to a variety of countries — China, India, Ghana, Poland, Romania — where disabled people typically have no access to wheelchairs. Many disabled people around the world, Ms. Hughes points out, are shunned, ignored, abandoned in orphanages or left to fend for themselves.
“For every chair that comes in, that's one more person who would not have a chair in their entire life,” she says.
WHEELS FOR THE WORLD
• What: Volunteer program that accepts wheelchairs to be repaired, refurbished and shipped to disabled people overseas.
• When: Chairs of all kinds can be dropped off Saturday through Sept. 25 at Circuit City stores in Landen, Pleasant Ridge, Forest Park, Eastgate, Westwood and Florence. Hader Hardware stores will accept donated tools for the repair work.
• Kickoff event: Wheelchair basketball and football games, raffle, skateboarding, music, entertainment 3-7 p.m. Saturday at Courts of Praise, 7474 Morris Road, Hamilton.
• Information: 677-8919.
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