Apparently there are a multitude of problems with donating power chairs to organizations. Many places, like Joni and Friends who help disabled persons overseas, cannot take power chairs because of the charging issue; many of the places the chairs would go have no power source or a different power source than the chairs. In addition, places like American Cancer Society, here in the states, won't take the chairs because they don't want to have to remember to charge the chair every couple of weeks until it is purchased or given away.I have called at least 20 different places and researched a myriad of others online. Every single one of them said, "No thank you". When I asked if they had suggestions where I could take them, all their suggestions ended up "no, sorry". It cannot be this difficult to give someone in need a $4,000 power chair. Well, apparently, it is!
I'm at my wits end, really. I don't want to send these expensive chairs to a land fill. That would be horrible, especially when there are so many people who can use them! I've posted pictures in the clubhouse here at the over 55 mobile home park, I've talked to churches, and I've called Assisted Living homes. What it comes down to is that no one wants the responsibility of charging the chairs while they wait to be donated. That just seems like a silly reason. I've had them in my shed downstairs and have been charging them faithfully every other week so the batteries won't die. It doesn't take any time out of my day, other than plugging in. I'm disappointed and puzzled by this. There are so many people out there who would benefit from these chairs. I just need a resource to contact them.
So, as I was writing this, I got a call back from Habitat for Humanity. They have stores (called Re-stores) placed all around cities in California. Over the last several months, the one here in Grass Valley, has been awesome about coming and picking up good condition items from me to sell in their store. The manager of the store has been extremely helpful and goes above and beyond her job title, giving extra consideration about what she can do to help her clientele. I can tell she cares deeply about what she does. She checked with the owner and they have decided they would like to pick up our power chairs and sell them in their store! Woo Hoo!
Out of all the those calls I made, and all the research I did, the least likely one to come through for me, actually did! That's really something. So they will come to pick up the chairs next Saturday and I know she will be faithful about charging them every two weeks so they don't get drained.
It pays to be diligent and to develop relationships with people as well. It actually all started with an email to her. She saw my blog address and went on there to find out about our situation. She has a friend with Parkinson's so we talked at length about the situation. Through our relationship, we've been able to send them all kinds of like-new items for their store and they have been able to help us out by picking them up. Awesome!
