Wheelchairs for El Salvador

With help from the Four Peaks Rotary Club and from our District  5510,  we filled an ocean  shipping container with 110 wheelchairs. Later, in early 2009 and in cooperation with a local Rotary Club in El Salvador, these wheel chairs were distributed to persons there in dire need .

Purchase and delivery of the wheelchairs was completed through the auspices of The Wheelchair Foundation, headquartered in Danville, CA. The Foundation estimates that over 100 million people worldwide with physical disabilities need wheelchairs, while less than one percent own or have access to one. Wheelchairs provide the mobility, which creates independence and endless possibilities for the recipients and their families.  To date, the Foundation has delivered 625,646 wheelchairs to recipients in 152 countries.

Each wheelchair costs about $150, so the small container cost $16,500 for 110 chairs.

The Fountain Hills Rotary Club, with some help from Four Peaks Rotary Club raised (earned) funds for the container contents by folding newspapers for much of a year for Take5Az, a biweekly Entertainment and News Guide. Rotary District 5510 matched these funds earned.

Art Ammon, wheelchair Project Manager, and Sandie Sickels, Pres. participated in the delivery ceremonies in El Salvador.