A wheelchair recipient celebrates winning a race against fellow wheelchair users

Since June of 2000, Sir Knight Chris Lewis has been directly involved in delivering more than 760,000 wheelchairs to people with physical disabilities in more than 150 countries. Initially as one of the people responsible for creating the Wheelchair Foundation, and now the president of the American Wheelchair Mission (The Global Wheelchair Mission’s USA branch) he has seen wheelchairs allow children to go to school, adults to go to work to provide for their families and the elderly to get out of a bed where they may have stayed for years. “I have seen prayers answered and dreams come true because of a wheelchair.” A wheelchair changes the lives of entire families and on average 10 people’s lives are directly impacted in a positive way with the gift of each wheelchair. “We have changed millions of lives — but much remains to be done.” An estimated 100 million people around the world are in need of a wheelchair. Fewer than 1 percent own or have access to one.

For every donation of $150 received by the Global Wheelchair Mission, it can deliver a brand new wheelchair which would cost over $500 in a medical supply store. They are shipped by 100 to 280 wheelchair containers directly from the factory to the destination countries at no cost to the recipients.

The California State Council has begun working on delivering wheelchairs, even though, as State Deputy Gary Nelson said, it’s “not the most usual thing” for Knights to partner with another organization. But the California Knights are simply following the example of the Supreme Council.

In 2002, Supreme Knight Anderson learned of the Global Wheelchair Mission. By 2003, his interest had grown into a working relationship: the Supreme Council sponsored 2,000 wheelchairs to be distributed in Afghanistan. In 2004-05, the Supreme Council sponsored 2,000 wheelchairs for distribution in the Middle East, the Philippines and Mexico. In 2006, 2,000 more were distributed in the Philippines, Mexico and Poland.

In April 2005, a group of California Knights joined Knights of Northern Mexico in a wheelchair distribution in three Mexican cities. The California State Council’s goal for 2005-06 was to donate $96,000 to the wheelchair relief mission. By early December, about $65,000 had already been raised and at the end of the year on June 30th California Knights had donated over $130,000, sponsoring the delivery of 1,760 wheelchairs.

For Chris Lewis, president of the American Wheelchair Mission and son of entertainer Jerry Lewis, the Knights’ partnership is particularly meaningful.

“I’m so happy, I can’t tell you, about how this has been coming about,” said Lewis, a Knight since 2000. “There are so many like-minded people within the Order who are concerned about improving the quality of people’s lives, and are wondering how they can do it.”

State Deputy Nelson has helped the Knights of California see how they can do it. He asked every KofC unit in the state to raise enough for two wheelchairs before the end of his term; each assembly, council, Columbian Squires circle and chapter funded the purchase of two wheelchairs. Each wheelchair purchased with the help of Knights’ donations bears a Knights of Columbus emblem stitched onto the back of the wheelchair.

“The thing that benefits us the most is awareness,” said Lewis. “People just don’t believe that you can sponsor the delivery of a $500 wheelchair for only $150. The message that the Knights are carrying to their councils, to their parishes, and outside to the community, is what’s causing so many people to get involved.”

“What they have become is our messengers to the world.”

It's not only Knights who are spreading the word about the wheelchair relief mission. Marilyn Willour, wife of Past State Deputy Ross Willour of St. Columban Council 3926 in Westminster, made a presentation about the mission at Trinity Episcopal Church in Orange, Calif., where she was the administrator until her recent retirement. “I think people may be tired of me talking about it,” she said with a chuckle, “but I bring up the wheelchairs whenever I can.”

A donated wheelchair affects the recipient physically. But the California Knights who went on the distribution trip in Mexico saw very clearly how wheelchairs impact the recipients emotionally and spiritually — and felt how the distribution affected them, too.

Past State Deputy William Przybyla of Redding Council 3978 went to Mexico in 2006 with his daughter Amanda for the wheelchair distribution, and recalls seeing a young man with a spasm condition receive a wheelchair. “To see the father getting tears in his eyes, because now he was going to be able to get his son around — it was very emotional,” said Przybyla. “It didn’t just impact the person receiving the wheelchair; it impacts the family.

“Actually participating in a distribution, you get to see your work come to fruition,” he added. “It really does make you a better person.”

Jim Letcher, Fourth Degree master of the Northern California District, shows a recently produced DVD of the Knights’ wheelchair distribution in Mexico each time he installs new officers for an assembly. “I always get very emotional when I see this movie,” he said. “I talk about how it affects me — how spiritual it is for me to help someone I don’t even know.”

He then passes around a hat so Knights can donate to the wheelchair mission. “By the time the hat comes around, I’ve always had $150 or more,” said Letcher.

“‘In service to One, in service to all.’ This [program] is the ‘all,’” he said. “It doesn’t matter that they’ve never heard of the Knights of Columbus; what matters is, we can help.”

Elisabeth Deffner writes from California. Her work has appeared in numerous publications including the Los Angeles Times, the National Catholic Register and Catholic Digest.

To learn more about the American Wheelchair Mission, go to www.amwheelchair.org. There you can watch videos of the US, Canadian and Mexican Knights participating in wheelchair distributions by clicking on “Knights of Columbus.” To order the DVD from the Supreme Council, contact Columbia magazine at 203-752-4398 or by e-mail at columbia@kofc.org.

To find out how your council can join the Global Wheelchair Mission efforts to help people in need of wheelchairs, call Brother Dan Moberg at (208) 457-0745 or by e-mail at dmoberg@amwheelchair.org.