We love to tell you about people receiving wheelchairs—but the reality is that there are still 100 million people worldwide who are living with physical challenges, but unable to get the mobility aid they need. We want to give 10,000 of them the wheelchair they’re waiting for by March 31. You can help: http://www.freewheelchairmission.org/bigpush
We hope you all have a great weekend–thank you for giving 670,000 smiles around the world!
A couple long-time supporters of Free Wheelchair Mission, Gabe and Amy Trevino have been selected along with their team as one of five finalists for the Doritos Crash the Super Bowl competition for their commercial “Fashionista Daddy.” Voting is open right now and if Fashionista Daddy is selected Gabe will donate a portion of his winnings to Free Wheelchair Mission! Voting is open until tomorrow so help our friends help us!
Great piece from Karina Alexander at OC Metro talking about our partnership with the Surf City Marathon! Be sure to give it a look and we’ll see you on race day!
Our Founder and President Don Schoendorfer, along with some of our amazing supporters including Barry and Meryl Resnick, recently went on a trip to Lesotho, Africa, to distribute wheelchairs along with our partners World Vision. You can read all about the trip in the Newport Beach Indy thanks to their very talented writer Cindy Trane Christeson. Thanks to Cindy and the NBI for helping get the word out, and to the Resnicks for telling a beautiful story!
Some of you may remember Sara Pasterski from our Ambassador video that we made a few months ago (Sara is at about the 45 second mark):
She bakes cookies for mobility. And she dines for mobility. And she eBays for mobility. How does she do all that? So glad you asked. A few of you probably saw the photos that Sara posted to our Facebook page last week highlighting her monthly dinner club event that they dedicated to Free Wheelchair Mission this month. We got a chance to catch up with Sara to get a few more details about the event:
I’m part of a monthly dinner group of ladies, and we’ve always gone out to try new restaurants each month. It was my turn to plan December’s dinner, and I decided to change things up a bit. I asked if they would be interested in coming to my house instead, and I would prepare a big meal in exchange for their donation to my ambassador page, giving what they would normally spend dining out for our meal. They loved the idea!
I decorated a beautiful Christmas table and put out a spread of food and wine. Their eyes were opened to the need for wheelchairs around the world and it really touched their hearts. I shared the little book FWM had unexpectedly sent me last month, which worked out perfectly!
I got several donations of $15-$30, as I had asked for, but then one woman gave a full wheelchair, and another was so touched by FWM’s mission that she donated $500—my largest donation ever received! I was overwhelmed at God’s blessing on this seemingly little idea I had: so thankful I followed through with it!
By the end of dinner more than $700 had been raised for FWM giving 10 people the wheelchair they’ve been waiting for! In fact, the event was such a hit that one of the attendees, Erica VanBoxel, wrote an article about it in Green Bay Press Gazette’s YOU Magazine. But that wasn’t the only way Sara saw she could support FWM:
On December 1st we went to the Big 10 Championship football game. The tickets were these huge plastic things on a lanyard to wear. When we got home I thought about giving them to my nephews to play with since they like football, but something told me to check eBay and see if people were maybe buying them as a collectible souvenir. Sure enough, one ticket was out there and going for $25, so I listed both of our tickets. They sold for $67 So that became one more wheelchair donated! Working toward that $2000 fundraising goal to be entered in the Peru trip contest!
Two simple ideas—a dinner group and an eBay auction—that led to 11 people getting the lift of a lifetime.
Thank you so much Sara, and the entire dinner group, for your support of Free Wheelchair Mission!
One of the many beautiful moments made possible because you support us.
Because of your support there are moments like this every time wheelchairs are given out. Thank you for your partnership with us, we hope you have a great weekend.
This week we had 550 Wheelchairs arrive in Thailand! Thank you for your support!
In observance of the Thanksgiving holiday we will be closed Thursday and Friday this week, returning on Monday the 26th. To all of you celebrating, have a happy Thanksgiving; to everyone have a great week and, again, thank you for your support!
Check out Free Wheelchair Mission Founder and President Don Schoendorfer as he sits down with Critical Mass Nonprofit’s host Richard Franzi for a great interview on FWM’s history and what we do, as well as ways YOU can get involved–thank you so much, Richard and the entire Critical Mass team for this opportunity! Enjoy!
TEDxOrange Coast has posted FWM’s Mike Kenyon speaking on “A Life in Motion” at this year’s TEDx Orange Coast event and we wanted to share his talk with you. Enjoy!
