This is a really good cause, so expect to see more posted on it in the coming weeks.
Free Wheelchair Mission and Reader’s Digest are partnering to sponsor the first ever Ride for Mobility. Don Schoendorfer and Dr. Mike Bayer, co-founders of Free Wheelchair Mission, will be undertaking a 3,000-mile cross-country cycling trek to provide the transforming gift of mobility to the physically disabled poor in developing countries.
Entitled Ride for Mobility, the grassroots educational and fundraising campaign was developed to help spread Free Wheelchair Mission’s message throughout the country and to raise funds to purchase 15,000 wheelchairs — designed and manufactured by Free Wheelchair Mission and delivered all over the world for under $50 per wheelchair. Currently, Free Wheelchair Mission has delivered more than 200,000 wheelchairs in over 65 countries throughout the world.
“Currently there are over 100 million people in the world who are in need of a wheelchair,” said Don Schoendorfer. “We’re launching Ride for Mobility to help raise enough funds to distribute 15,000 wheelchairs to disabled people in developing countries who do not have the resources and are often times subject to having to crawl on the ground in dangerous and unsanitary conditions.”
For the important work he is doing through the Free Wheelchair Mission, Don Schoendorfer was featured as a Reader’s Digest Everday Hero. The journey kicks off at Reader’s Digest’s headquarters in Pleasantville, New York on Friday, April 20, 2007. During the campaign, individuals interested in following the trek can log on to the Reader’s Digest web site, www.rd.com, to view daily streaming video and/or purchase a subscription to the publication — as a portion of the proceeds will be donated to Free Wheelchair Mission.
For those who would like to become actively involved, Free Wheelchair Mission is inviting the public to join Don and Dr. Mike on their cross-country cycling trek, which will take them from New York City to New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and conclude in Newport Beach, California on June 16.
For more information on the Ride for Mobility, to download a schedule to join Don and Dr. Mike, to make a donation, or to become a fund raiser for the Ride, log on to www.ride4mobility.org.
For more information on Free Wheelchair Mission go to www.freewheelchairmission.org.