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Courtesy of the Cupertino Rotary Club
With a Little Help from Friends: Bay Area Rotary Club members last month helped assist a Texcoco, Mexico, man into his newly acquired wheelchair.
Rotarians visit Mexico to donate wheelchairs to needy residents
Campbell-San Jose West's president takes journey south
By Erin Mayes
Cecelia Babkirk said she's amazed at how far American money can go in Mexico.
As president of the Campbell-San Jose West Rotary Club, Babkirk visited Texcoco, Mexico, in early November with 36 members of other Rotary clubs from the Bay Area.
Texcoco is a city of 101,700 and is about 30 minutes from Mexico City. It is also home to two Rotary clubs, one that's been around for about 60 years and a newer one called Texcoco de Gante, named after a priest who established the educational system in Mexico. Together, these Rotary clubs have assisted their local churches in projects such as building an orphanage, a drug rehabilitation center and a vocational center. Rotary clubs in the Bay Area have also donated money to the Texcoco clubs.
When Babkirk and her fellow Rotary club members visited the Mexican city, they got to see what exactly their fundraising had produced.
"It was a very emotional experience," Babkirk said. "On the first day that we were there, we got out of the bus and these adorable kids from very young up to 18 or so greeted us at the door with hugs and kisses, all dressed up in their best clothes."
These were the children who live in an orphanage that was built with Rotary club funds. Babkirk said that many of the children who live in Mexico's orphanages have been removed from abusive homes.
"It's clear that the father [Catholic priest] and the nuns really care about these children," she said. "He makes sure they get an education and they have a happy life and they're dressed and fed."
The heartbreaking part of the story, Babkirk said, is that once the children reach age 18, their families may come back to claim them, and in Mexican tradition, the children must then care for their abusive parents.
The next stop on the Rotarians' tour was a drug rehabilitation center, where a few of the recovering drug addicts described their experiences.
"Some of these people were as young as 9 years old," Babkirk said. "Some of these could be kids who are in gangs in East San Jose. The father has done a wonderful job of pulling them out of a really ugly life."
A woodshop, metal shop and bakery are housed at the vocational center that was also funded by Rotarians. Babkirk said the bakery puts out enough bread to feed everyone at the center as well as enough to sell, so it has become self-supporting.
The Rotarians' last, and perhaps most emotional stop was at a stadium in Texcoco, where they handed out 240 wheelchairs. About 300 people had applied for the free chairs, but, of course, not everyone received one.
"These were severely disabled people," Babkirk said. "Many tears were shed when they had to tell these people they wouldn't get a wheelchair."
Babkirk helped the first recipient, a man with cerebral palsy, into his wheelchair and recalls that he was shaking so badly because he was so overcome with emotion that they could barely keep him in the chair.
Another family cried after their 16-year-old son was given a wheelchair. The boy's mother offered Babkirk two apples in return.
"The woman said we'd given them their life back," she said. "She said they could never take him anywhere because he was immobile. She gave us two apples and said 'I have nothing.' She said it was the only way she had of showing her gratitude."
Babkirk remembered another woman who crawled into the stadium on her knees to receive a wheelchair.
Sandie Zander, a member of the Cupertino Rotary Club, said she was overcome with emotion every time she helped lift a disabled person into his or her new wheelchair.
"It was an incredibly moving, educational, delightful and heartwarming experience," she said.
The Rotarians were able to donate the wheelchairs with some help from the Wheelchair Foundation, a nonprofit launched in June 2000 by former Seattle Seahawks owner Ken Behring. The foundation has delivered more than 33,000 new wheelchairs to about 75 different countries since its inception.
The foundation estimates that 100 million to 130 million disabled people need wheelchairs, but fewer than 1 percent own or have access to them. In developing countries, dependence falls heavily on family or friends to get around--others are forced to crawl or simply never leave their homes.
The foundation gives many disabled people their first chance of gaining some independence in their lives. The efforts of Rotary clubs from about 25 countries have helped the foundation deliver roughly 10,000 wheelchairs, according to Chris Lewis, director of marketing and fundraising and son of Muscular Dystrophy Chairman Jerry Lewis.
"We are so pleased to be working with Rotarians from all over the globe," Chris Lewis said.
Lewis, based in Danville, took part in the trip to Texcoco and praised the efforts of all involved.
"We've never fitted and seated 240 people into their new wheelchairs at one time before this trip," Lewis said. "It's a very time-consuming and labor-intensive process."
Cupertino Rotary President Charlie Schramm said the partnership of the Rotary Club of Texcoco de Gante with the local chapter in Cupertino provided the combined efforts of around 70 people to help with the distribution. Schramm said the local Rotarians were very organized and had the assistance of children from a local school to help wheel the new chairs into the stadium. The Rotarians divided into groups of three to four individuals who worked together to help the disabled into their new wheelchairs.
Zander was teamed up with club member Dick Lohmiller and her daughter, Megan, who flew from the University of Illinois to rendezvous with the group on its way to Texcoco. Megan, a psychology major and Spanish minor, proved to be invaluable, according to her mother.
"I felt so blessed to have her there as a translator," Zander said. "We were lucky because we got to hear the life stories of many of the disabled. They told us how we were changing their lives with these 'gifts from heaven,' and that we were angels sent from God. It was a very emotional day--lots of crying and hugging. There's a lot of need down there."
Megan said she was also deeply moved by the endeavor.
"It was an incredible experience," she said. "It far surpassed anything that I expected. To be able to change so many lives in just five days--it shows what the efforts of individuals can accomplish."
The Zanders witnessed the arrival of many of the wheelchair recipients to the stadium. They said some of them hobbled in, with and without the use of crutches.
"We noticed one person with a wheelchair that had no seat," Zander said. "They had taken rope and crisscrossed it to create one."
Lohmiller said Zander has only been a Rotary club member for a couple of months, signing up for the trip on her first day.
"I get such a thrill out of watching the reactions of the other members," Lohmiller said. "The people who were getting the wheelchairs were so grateful and appreciative--it not only changes their lives, but it also changes the lives of their caregivers, who are often family members."
Joanne Mansch, a Cupertino Rotarian, spoke of the emotional power of the trip.
"It was heart-wrenching placing them in their new wheelchairs," she says. "A lot of people prayed for us and wanted photographs taken of their 'guardian angels.'"
The trip resulted in new friendships from Mexico and closer relationships among the club's members, Mansch said.
Schramm said the trip had many memorable moments, including a rendition of "God Bless America," sung to them by the Texcoco de Gante Rotarians as the group prepared for their departure back home to America.
"We've continued our relationships with many of them since we returned," Schramm said.
Richard Smith, president of Rotary Club of Sunnyvale, said his thoughts about the trip were hard to put into words.
"It was probably the greatest experience I've ever had," Smith said. "It's one thing to give to different charities, but when you're able to physically place people into their new wheelchairs, it's something that you'll never forget."
The cost of a manual institutional type of wheelchair is close to $500, and some manual chairs can cost more than $4,000. Lewis said he buys the wheelchairs in bulk, so they cost only $150 each. A fundraising dinner last September in Cupertino raised more than $18,000, which was matched by the Wheelchair Foundation, and enough to purchase and deliver the 240 wheelchairs.
Lewis said the goal of the foundation is to deliver 1 million wheelchairs worldwide over the next five years. In order to reach its goal, $150 million is needed--the foundation must raise $75 million and Behring has pledged to match that amount.
George Moore contributed to this story.
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Campbell, California
