A Washougal retirement and assisted living facility is teaming with a Camas High School student to collect used wheelchairs and other medical equipment later this month for use in Haiti.
The collection will take place at Columbia Ridge Senior Living, 2300 W. Ninth St. The collection truck will be in the main parking lot from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 25, to Sunday, Feb. 28.
Rebekah Tolbert, a Camas High School senior, is part of the effort through her senior project. Tolbert, who has cerebral palsy, is assisting Wheels for the World, an international nonprofit aid agency.
“We know that people have wheelchairs and other equipment stashed away in their garages and basements,” Tolbert said. “This is the perfect time to help others, especially the Haitian earthquake victims, by giving them to Wheels for the World.”
In an Associated Press story Friday, Dr. Bob Norris, who leads an International Medical Corps team, said that the long list of shortages includes wheelchairs and crutches.
“We have a country full of people with new amputations who have to learn how to live their lives,” Norris told a reporter
Columbia Ridge hopes to fill a large delivery truck with used pieces of durable medical equipment. In addition to manually operated wheelchairs, organizers want to collect walkers, walker trays, crutches, canes and foam wheelchair seat cushions.
All donated medical equipment will be refurbished and distributed in Haiti by Wheels for the World volunteers.
While volunteering at the Washougal Senior Center, Tolbert met Columbia Ridge Senior Living community outreach director Richard Glenn. Glenn realized that virtually every senior residence or health care facility has storage rooms filled with equipment left behind by people who have moved out or died.
While Glenn will coordinate collection efforts with senior and health care facilities, the drive also seeks donations from individuals in the greater Vancouver area. People can make monetary donations at http://www.joniandfriends.org/.
For information, call 360-335-1238.
