Coming soon to our REquipment inventory: a pediatric Permobil powerchair that can raise a child up to eye level or bring down to crawl onto the floor. Very cool.
Category: blog
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Ricky Loves His Powerchair!
Thanks, everyone, for making stories like this one possible. Last month we had the privilege to make a real difference for a homeless 10-year-old boy. Ricky has a degenerative skeletal disease and a broken leg. Getting around with a manual wheelchair while awaiting surgery is not an option because manual chairs are too difficult for him to push. He is currently living with his aunt, who plans to help him recuperate following his surgery and while his mom looks for housing. She also helped connect him with our program and the MassMATCH AT Regional Center.
Thanks to our community of programs and donors, Ricky is now cruising around independently in a power wheelchair and he and his aunt could not be happier. “He absolutely loves the chair,” she wrote Stavros CIL, our partner, who delivered the equipment. “I took him to Quabbin Dam on the way home and he was amazed at all the places he could go now.”
Ricky with Tom Filiault on delivery day Our network is helping give Ricky a quality of life that would otherwise be out of reach. Ricky can get in and out of his aunt’s house because of the loan of a portable wheelchair ramp provided by the AT Regional Center in Pittsfield. His aunt found a ramp/trailer hitch on Craigslist and she writes, “The possibilities are endless.” Despite the broken leg and impending surgery, Ricky is getting a taste of summer: “He was so excited to be able to go on grass and dirt trails with such ease. He even kept up on a bike ride with his cousin yesterday!”
Ricky enjoying the great outdoors Want to help more kids (and adults) like Ricky? Power wheelchairs change lives and we have a steady demand and even a reasonable supply of equipment. What we need help with is funding for batteries. Help us get more people moving! Your $350 donation will solve someone’s mobility needs and all gift levels are appreciated! Donate today.
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Roxanne Haecker Finds Power With REquipment
REquipment was pleased last month to make a big difference in the day-to-day mobility of Roxanne Haecker. Roxanne is the Director of Education and Workforce Development at Roxbury Tenants of Harvard. She called us in March, explaining she has a spinal cord injury, and that she’s in need of a power wheelchair to get back and forth to work. Accustomed to using a manual chair, Roxanne was lately finding it was more and more difficult to get around. “I actually had to ask for help more than a few times when it was windy or when I left work late in the evening,” she told us. A power wheelchair, she suspected, would give her back her independence and peace of mind.
In April we received the donation of a Hoverround powerchair. Having never used a power wheelchair before, Roxanne was initially hesitant. “I was a little afraid of the chair at first, afraid whether I would be a crazy driver and crash into things or if the battery would die and I’d get stuck somewhere.” Now, a month later, Roxanne is a happy powerchair driver. “None of those things happened! I am using the chair every day to go back and forth to work, and it has made my life so much easier!”
Want to read more great stories about people gaining independence? Donate funds for a powerchair battery!
Karen Langley with Roxanne Haecker -
Join the REQUIPMENT, Inc. Board of Directors!
Do you love the REquipment mission? Are you interested in helping us expand our reuse program and steer our vision? Perhaps you’ve benefitted from REquipment in the past? If the answer is yes, then please consider applying for REquipment DME and AT Reuse Program’s Board of Directors!
As a new non-profit, we are looking for people with a strong desire to advance our mission of durable medical equipment and assistive technology reuse. We are particularly interested in individuals who use DME or AT themselves and/or are from diverse ethnic communities or cultures. Ideal applicants will have 2 years personal experience using DME or AT, or have professional experience managing or promoting DME/AT programs, or work with individuals who use DME/AT.
Help us achieve statewide representation! Our board meets quarterly by phone to facilitate participation.
Interested? Need more information? Contact me at klangley@dmereuse.org.
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Save the Date! REquipment’s Bridgewater Community Donation Drive is May 20th
Join us on Saturday, May 20th from 9 – 2 pm at 100 Laurel Street in East Bridgewater
REquipment is holding its first equipment donation drive serving the Bridgewater area. The drive is co-sponsored by Independence Associates, Old Colony Elder Services, Easter Seals and School on Wheels Massachusetts. It is the first in a series of drives to be held across the state; gently-used durable medical equipment (DME), as well as new school supplies, will be collected.
“Equipment drives are a great way to collect a large number of items on one day for our inventory,” notes REquipment Program Director Jennifer Baker. “Generally we pick-up one donation at a time, which takes a lot longer and costs us a lot more. Drives help to conserve our program’s limited resources.”
Residents of communities surrounding East Bridgewater are urged to come drop off their unneeded durable medical equipment on drive day. Much of the equipment to be collected will benefit elders served by Old Colony Elder Services. Armindo Rocha, Old Colony’s homecare supervisor, says many of the seniors he serves need safety equipment in their homes. “Items like tub seats and shower chairs, as well as transport wheelchairs are needed so families can easily bring their elders to appointments in the community,” he says. “These devices are not always covered by insurance or the family needs a second device in another home or location.”
REquipment also encourages donations of power and manual wheelchairs, scooters, rollator-type walker, portable ramps, standers and adapted strollers. REquipment does not accept canes, crutches, walkers, commodes or hospital beds. (These may be offered to local Council on Aging loan closets.)
“We have a generous community,” observes Steve Higgins, Executive Director of Independence Associates. Steve offered his center’s location for the drive without hesitation. Independence Associates is the independent living center serving 31 cities and towns on the South Shore including East Bridgewater. “We serve many people both young and old with disabilities who can benefit from this drive or make a donation if there’s equipment they’re not using.” Independence Associates, along with Easter Seals MA, are also recruiting young people to volunteer and work the day through their Youth Leadership Network and Transition to Adulthood Programs.
In addition to gently-used durable medical equipment, the drive will also be collecting new school supplies such as paper, pens and backpacks to benefit students impacted by homelessness and served by School on Wheels Massachusetts.
If you live in the Bridgewater area, please bring your unused durable medical equipment and school supplies. Stop by, too, to learn more about programs serving elders and people with disabilities and about School on Wheels. Our programs make a tremendous difference for young and old in Massachusetts.
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REQUIPMENT Comes to Arlington May 13th!
If you live in Arlington check out your basement, garage and closets to see if you have anything to donate for Super Recycle and Waste Diversion Day!
The Town of Arlington is holding this annual spring event on Saturday, May 13th from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 51 Grove Street, Arlington (enter from Massachusetts Avenue).
Items accepted for reuse include bicycles, used toys, children’s clothing and books. REquipment will be collecting gently-used medical equipment such as power and manual wheelchairs, rollators, tub seats and shower chairs, portable ramps, knee walkers. We will not accept canes, crutches, walkers or commodes.
For more information about what is accepted visit Arlington’s Super Recycle and Waste Diversion Day web page.
Can’t make it May 13th but have DME to donate? No problem! Complete REquipment’s online donation form and we will be in touch soon!
Choose to Reuse Your DME!
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REquipment Reaches out at DDS Assistive Technology Symposium
On April 12th, REquipment had the privilege of attending an assistive technology (AT) symposium held by the Department of Developmental Services (DDS) in its southeast region. The event attracted 250 individuals including DDS staff, AT vendors, and other professionals who came to hear people with disabilities and their AT specialists talk about the positive impact assistive technology has had on their lives.
This was a wonderful opportunity for REquipment to inform and update DME users and the service network in southeastern Massachusetts about REquipment. Roxy Rocker, REquipment Program Coordinator, attended to staff our vendor table and over 80 people stopped to speak with her, take our promotional materials and signup for our newsletter.
Roxy Rocker chats with Tom Mercier Roxy reports, “The people I spoke with were excited to learn we are turning around so much equipment this year and were thoughtful about how our program might serve individuals they know.” She says she enjoyed the event and getting a chance to chat with DDS AT Program Director, Tom Mercier. DDS is one of REquipment’s original reuse partners and hosts our AT reuse center in Worcester.
We look forward to many years of productive collaboration to serve all communities in Massachusetts!
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Make a Powerful Donation–Sponsor a Battery!
REquipment is suffering from success. Since September we’ve given away over 70 refurbished power wheelchairs, the most expensive items in our inventory. New, these powerchairs range from $5,000 (basic models) to $45,000 (custom configurations). As you can imagine, giving away equipment this expensive makes a remarkable difference in the lives of people who request it. The challenge now is to keep pace with device donations and demand.
Our staff spends most of their time evaluating, inspecting, repairing, cleaning, and testing each power wheelchair before it is assigned to a new owner. Every power wheelchair receives two new batteries to ensure the chair will operate properly. We use our limited resources wisely and shop around to get the best price we can for batteries; it costs between $160-$200 per power wheelchair for batteries alone.
Why are we so motivated?
Some people can’t function without this equipment. They’re people with new or lifelong disabilities, elders, families with children with disabilities or those with a temporary need due to surgery or illness. Examples include:
- a woman in Jamaica Plain who uses a manual wheelchair but finds traveling distances impossible due to arthritis in her hands. Her REquipment powerchair means she no longer enlists help from strangers to push her home from work.
- a woman in Worcester who uses her REquipment powerchair to go shopping and meet friends for lunch. These were activities she’d avoided with her rollator, following a stroke.
- a woman in Salem who lives in a homeless shelter with MS; she is now getting out into her community with help from a REquipment powerchair.
When I tell people what REquipment does–accepting used medical equipment, cleaning, repairing and giving it away for free–I always get a great response: “That’s wonderful!” “It’s so needed!” “It’s great someone is doing it and not throwing all that equipment away!”
Well, now I’m asking for your help.
When we started the fiscal year in September we budgeted $6,000 for batteries. Due to a marvelously high level of powerchair donations, we doubled that budget in late March. But with 70 power wheelchairs out the door, we’re already again depleted! To keep REquipment powerchairs rolling, we need to raise a minimum of $4,500 to get us through June 30th.
Won’t you sponsor a battery? $200 gets a REquipment powerchair out of our warehouse and rolling into your communities.
Donations of any amount can be made at www.dmereuse.org or by sending a check made out to REquipment DME Reuse Program to REquipment, PO Box 311, Methuen, MA 01844.
We feel tremendously fortunate to receive so many wheelchair donations and be in a position to transform so many lives. Be a part of this!
We promise your donations will be powerful.
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REquipment’s Beacon Hill Chat Now Available
Our March 3rd interview with Senator Harriette Chandler is now available for viewing. Unfortunately, captions are not yet available (we are requesting this of WCCA). To read about our Beacon Hill Chat interview visit this REquipment blog post. For the video, click the image below.
Left to right: Randi Sargent, Karen Langley, Senator Chandler -
Pay It Forward!
Pay It Forward is a great way to think about DME reuse. Rather than paying someone back who helps us, we “pay it forward” to the next person in need. At REquipment, we help community members “pay it forward” all the time. Someone pays it forward with the donation of durable medical equipment (DME) so we can refurbish it for someone else. From there the cycle keeps going, gaining momentum, and hopefully gathering up more of us in this circle of interdependence and care.
If you or a family member have been the beneficiary of equipment from the REquipment Durable Medical Equipment Reuse Program please consider how you might pay it forward so that others can benefit as you have. Below are a few suggestions, but we’d love to hear your ideas as well!
- Share your REquipment story! Tell others how they can donate devices they are no longer using and how you were helped.
- Help us illustrate the power of DME reuse. Email us a picture (jpeg) of you with your equipment and a few sentences about the impact it has had on your life.
- Join us to visit lawmakers at the State House or district offices. Your story is essential to help maintain or expand state funding for these efforts.
- Join us with private funders as well. Tell them your story and inspire enthusiasm for supporting DME reuse.
- Volunteer with us. Call or email and we’ll discuss ways you might help. (Transportation costs are reimbursed.)
Ready to pay it forward? Email me at klangley@dmereuse.org.
I look forward to hearing from you!