Free Wheelchair Mission Newsletter

A Newsletter from Free Wheel Chair Mission

Fall Quarterly 2012

Wheeling Delivers!

A two week adventure of blessing

This September, sixteen members of the Vineyard Church from Wheeling, West Virginia, travelled to Vietnam with their second delivery of wheelchairs! After seeing founder Don Schoendorfer promoting his cross country bike trip on the CBS Morning Show last November, congregant Chris Figaretti was inspired to reach out and make a connection.

“I remember thinking to myself…what a great way to spend your life!”

INSIDE THIS ISSUE Notes from Peru

Build ‘em, Ship ‘em, Roll ‘em Out! Run for Mobility Christmas in July Mobility in Motion

Chris added, “That afternoon, I emailed to see if I could meet up with them on the road.”Meet up they did, and the Vineyard Church jumped into action. After conducting multiple fundraising efforts, this dynamic congregation has now raised over $180,000 to support the Free Wheelchair Mission. To learn more about the Wheeling distribution trips, see Chris’s blog at www.chrisinvietnam.com

406,800 Between Dreams and Prayers

freewheelchairmission.org

wheelchairs shipped

72

countries

$51.29 will transform a life

Build ‘em, Ship ‘em, Roll ‘em Out! Manufacturing and logistics are key to the FWM model of distribution.

T

he funds have been raised, the countries designated... now wheelchairs can be built and shipped to recipients waiting for mobility around the world.

Notes From Ecuador Staff writer Andrew Valenzuela accompanied a distribution to Ecuador in February 2012. Their final stop was in the town of Pasaje...

“We are so far from home.” Linda is right.

We are driving from Loja to Pasaje along the rim of a vast expanse we have dubbed the “green Grand Canyon.” We are seven of us - fundraisers, distribution partners, staff - tucked into a van that is begging for retirement, on a road that has never been enlightened by a guardrail. We are reminded of our American-ness as the passage surprises us with all things Ecuadorian – a cow resting in the road, a mud slide, some very large rocks. We stop for pictures. We wander past a waterfall. We wait for the traffic to clear and the cow to move. We are on Ecuador time, and we are truly along for the ride.

We slide into Pasaje three hours behind schedule. It is hot, the air is thick, and I am on edge, my stateside concern for punctuality miles out of place but hard to ignore. I imagine our recipients waiting for their wheelchairs and hope that they have gone ahead without us. Three hours late. Today’s distribution site is a gymnasium and inside, the local officials are gracious despite the heat beaded across their foreheads. Three hours late!! Kids in unmatched clothing and women in thin dresses and bent old men fill the bleachers, and empty wheelchairs circle the gym floor where our recipients wait.

freewheelchairmission.org

Manufacturing FWM maintains close negotiations with manufacturers in China to build quality wheelchairs at a competitive price. FWM’s main supplier is located in Zhejiang, in the Huzhou region, it is here that the metal work takes place, the hand rims are added, and additional materials are brought in and packaged. Vital to the proceedings is quality control.

Testing is carefully designed into the FWM model. Quality control expert Echo Zhao is FWM’s independent contact in China, and his vigilant oversight helps maintain stringent standards. Zhao visits the factory several times a month, monitoring tests and overseeing results.

When 550 wheelchairs have been built, the supplier packs them into a 40foot, ocean-going container, completes all export customs clearance and trucks them approximately 100 miles to the port of Shanghai.

In shipping, FWM works to keep costs low by utilizing a cooperative bargaining organization that helps smaller organizations get better shipping rates by negotiating collectively on their behalf. FWM also searches for free or discounted rates, which are occasionally available to nonprofit organizations. In these cases, FWM can hitch a ride on a vessel that is going in the same direction and happens to have extra room.

Manufacturing, quality control, shipping...efficient logistics are essential to keeping costs low and quality high as FWM works to send the transforming gift of mobility around the world!

$51.29 will transform a life

Make the Miles Matter in 2013 Ready...set...and they’re off!

R

un for Mobility 2013 is already in the works, and preparations for this annual Super Bowl Sunday event are well under way.

Now in our fifth year as featured charity of the Surf City USA® Marathon, Free Wheelchair Mission is proud of our fundraisers as they “run for those who can’t,” utilizing this premier southern California event to support wheelchair distributions around the globe. Scheduled for February 7, 2013, the Surf City USA® Marathon offers a 5K, half and full marathon, and attracts a full roster of worldclass athletes.

It’s Christmas in July!

We’re looking ahead to the holidays and thought we’d let a little secret out of the bag.

Holiday Greeting Cards!!

Yes, it’s true! For the first time ever, Free Wheelchair Mission will be offering boxed holiday greeting cards for friends and family! Send along the best wishes of the season while sharing the FWM story with everyone on your mailing list!

Available September 2012 www.freewheelchairmission.org

And while you’re making your miles matter, raise over $500 as a fundraiser and race for free. Our goal? Five hundred people raising $500 a piece. That’s a quarter of a million dollars for wheelchairs...and over 4,200 lives mobilized!

New this year!

1. Win a Trip to Peru! For the first time ever, the very top fundraiser who exceeds $32,560 will receive airfare, race entry, ground transportation and accommodations, first for a wheelchair distribution, then to take part in the third annual Maratón Internacional de Pacasmayo, scheduled for July 3-4, 2013. To learn more about this event, go to www. maratoninternacionaldepacasmayo.com.

2. A training program for the half marathon, available upon a donation to Free Wheelchair Mission. Participants will meet Saturday mornings at the Huntington Beach Pier starting November 7, 2012.

3. Free ticket to the Run for Mobility Celebration pre-race dinner for all participants who raise funds for Free Wheelchair Mission.

Whether you run, walk, or simply have a heart for people with disabilities, you can be a fundraiser. To date, fundraisers in the Run for Mobility have contributed well over a million dollars, lifting thousands of people up off the ground. Join us. Go to www.runformobility. org and become a fundraiser today. Make your miles matter in 2013, and send the transforming gift of mobility around the world!

Dates to remem ber

Now! Register as a fundraiser at www.runformobility.org

Now! Register for the Surf City USA® Marathon at www.runsurfcity.com

Februa ry 6, 2013

Join us for the annual, pre-race festivities at the Run for Mobility Dinner. Details at www.runformobility.org

Februa ry 7, 2013

Super Bowl Sunday – Surf City USA® Marathon and Run for Mobility 2013!

freewheelchairmission.org

MOBILITY IN MOTION

2012 will mark Free Wheelchair Mission’s second year to partner with individuals and organizations around the country for the Mobility in Motion national effort. We are currently recruiting groups and individuals to raise fund, hold events promote Free Wheelchair Mission in their communities. To get involved, contact us at aherron@freewheelchairmission.org!

$51.29 will transform a life

FROM DON SCHOENDORFER, President and Founder

Letter from Don: s a child, I never quite got the A connection between Christmas and

the significance of Christmas presents. I grew up in a loving home.

My family would attend services on Christmas Eve, then walk home along the Lake Erie shoreline road, enjoying the muffled silence of falling snow. The next day we would open the gifts, and for a kid a gift is never a bad thing...but something was missing. Forty years later, I found myself in Angola, giving away some of our very first wheelchairs. It was December of 2002 and Free Wheelchair Mission was just starting out. Portuguese missionaries had brought Christianity to the region long before, but after suffering through 26 years of a brutal civil war, I could see no evidence of Christmas among the Angolan people. So there we were with 43 wheelchairs in a country that needed 400,000. People were struggling to make their way to our truck, supporting their weight against crude sticks, crawling through fields and along dirt roads. The truck was like a beacon, and they kept coming and coming. “This is a gift from God who loves you,” we repeated with each wheelchair shared. “It is a Christmas present from God.” Finally, I understood. Two thousand years ago, God gave mankind a gift far beyond our imagination. That day in Angola, we simply put into action the word of God...sharing His love with those for whom the gift of mobility was a dream far beyond imagination.

Join with us, and make the gifts of hope, joy and opportunity a part of your family’s holiday tradition. Mobilize lives with a Christmas present beyond imagination, and those you touch will hear the words we shared years ago in Angola: “This is a gift from God who loves you.”

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distribution partners and 33,550 recipients are currently approved for wheelchairs and waiting for funding

Next in Line: The Comoros

Located just off the eastern coast of Africa, this tiny island nation struggles with unemployment and lack of resources. Over half the population lives below the international poverty line.

Correspondence Only: 9341 Irvine Blvd., Irvine, CA 92618 Donations: PO Box 513538, Los Angeles, CA 90051-3538 Contact us: | Donations / Toll-Free: 800.733.0858 Phone: 949.273.8470 | Fax: 949.273.8471 freewheelchairmission.org

$51.29 will transform a life