HERO? WHO’S YOUR

The shear numbers really grab your attention: More than 151,000-pounds of donations. 3,119 individuals and agencies served. More than 36 missions. 76 tons. What on earth can these numbers have to do with a HERO?

They are the numbers that are making the difference in so many lives, from the Fargo-Moorhead area all the way to Ecuador and Nigeria. The heroic numbers are possible because of Deanna Micheli’s dream.

The Start of Something Big

More than 16 years ago, when Micheli was a nurse in Fargo, she attended a lecture; there, the audience of which she was a part was challenged to find out what they could do about still-useable waste going in to landfills. Micheli immediately thought about the surgical packs that are prepared for every surgery in the Fargo-Moorhead area and brought it to the attention of the Association of Operating Room Nurses. While surgeons use some items from each pack, often there were many things left unused and sterile but discarded. With the hospital’s permission and knowledge, she started gathering up these unused but still useable items (bandages, gauze, etc.) and started storing them in a garage.

With seed money from Meritcare, HERO, Healthcare Equipment Recycling Organization was born. Its mission? To collect and redistribute donated healthcare materials to benefit those in need. It focuses on reducing healthcare costs for individuals in need of medical equipment and supplies.

The Mission

HERO is eco-friendly, protecting the environment by keeping perfectly useable medical materials from reaching local landfills as waste, and recycles those materials through redistribution.

Margot Brenna, HERO’s Communications Director, said that today, one-third of all HERO’s funding comes from individual support; the rest comes from grants, fees collected from the retail store, and sponsorship events including fundraisers and the annual HERO Bash. “There are so many people in need of all these supplies,” she said, “which would just be thrown in landfills. We work with underinsured people, and people who have no insurance— and those who just don’t have the extra money these days for the medical supplies they need.” And there you have some very important numbers: the 3,119 individuals and agencies served, the 76 tons of items saved from landfills.

Wonderfully, getting needed supplies is pain free. “Since we moved into our current location on 53rd Street South,” Brenna noted, “we’ve been able to set up a nice, clean store with all the materials grouped and marked with reduced prices. But if someone is having financial hardship, their fees can be reduced or waived. The numbers work like this: 50 percent of HERO’s clients pay half of retail price for these recycled items and their payment allows HERO to waive any fees or costs for those who can’t pay.”

Brenna told of a recent client—a woman who’d been wheelchair bound much of her adult life. She was fortunate to have a motorized wheelchair, but when the woman began losing her eyesight, the motorized chair frightened her. She needed a manual wheelchair but was not able to afford one (new, they can cost upwards of $1,000). Through HERO’s help, she received a recycled chair and now moves around without being scared.

Helping to Change the World

Beyond impacting local medical supply needs, HERO reaches out globally. “HERO has been involved in medical missions since it started in 1996,” Brenna stated. “We started by partnering with the FM Haiti Medical Mission Team.” More recently, HERO sent a truckload of supplies after the earthquake. “Georgia, our Operations Manager, has gone to Haiti for the past four years as part of the team so that someone from the organization has a firsthand look at how things are going there,” Brenna said. “They’re among the biggest group we work with but, of those many agencies and missions, there are the smaller groups who come and get a suitcase of supplies to bring home to such places as Nigeria.”

What’s Next?

One of the organization’s goals is to grow these numbers even more—imagine all the landfills all over the country that received useful medical materials that could have been provided to those in need. In response, HERO has put together affordable start-up packages for communities and groups to purchase to initiate their own HERO. HERO Fargo is also looking to start satellite locations in surrounding communities. Detroit Lakes, Minnesota is the first location being explored.

But it’s not all just about those numbers. Your area HERO also knows how to play, and this past October celebrated 16 years of operation with an open house. “It was good to show so many folks around, and to see old board members resurface and share good memories,” Brenna said.

“I’m really excited about the growth we’ve seen over the past 16 years,” Micheli said. “It is amazing how lives can be changed by recycling and redistributing items that would otherwise be sent to a landfill!” [AWM]

HERO

Monday-Friday 9 am – 5pm 5012 53rd Street South, Suite C Fargo, North Dakota 58103 701.212.1921 // herofargo.org

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