Renton Middle School

You'd think, after delivering the same pitch time and time again, emotions might dull.

But not for Scott Jones, a counselor at Renton's Nelsen Middle School.

Speaking to the Soroptimists of Renton a few weeks back, Jones was emotional as he talked about the needs of the disabled in Third World countries. And he was visibly proud as he described how students at Nelsen were stepping up to help.

Last week, Nelsen students reached their goal of raising $26,600 for the Free Wheelchair Mission, a California-based nonprofit that provides wheelchairs to disabled people around the world.

Jones, a 44-year-old Bellevue resident, put the wheels in motion. Several years ago, he and his wife heard Don Schoendorfer, founder of the Free Wheelchair Mission, speak at the Mercer Island Covenant Church. Schoendorfer's story was compelling: While vacationing in Morocco in 1977, he'd watched a disabled woman crawl along a road. The image was unsettling and unforgettable.

Years later, Schoendorfer, an MIT graduate, turned his talents to addressing a solution. In an age where complexity often is the rule, Schoendorfer's answer was surprisingly simple: a wheelchair, constructed in part with a lawn chair seat and mountain bike wheels, produced for under $50. In 1999, he launched the Free Wheelchair Mission.

"It seemed like such a great solution," Jones says. "We donated a wheelchair or two."

Then, last October, Jones picked up a movie -- "Emmanuel's Gift" -- at Blockbuster. The documentary is about a young Ghanaian man born with a deformed leg. Emmanuel's father, believing the deformity is a curse from God, abandons the family, but Emmanuel is determined -- even in a culture where the disabled often are shunned -- to make the most of his life. He goes to school. He plays soccer on crutches (after earning enough to buy a soccer ball so other children would let him play). At 13, and by then an orphan, he applied for a grant to get a bicycle so he could ride around Ghana demonstrating what people with disabilities can do. Jones was captivated.

"This is the kind of role model you want to put in front of your kids," says Jones, who was also struck that one of Schoendorfer's wheelchairs was in the film. So he turned to Nelsen students and staff, asking if they'd help raise $26,600, enough to send a container of 550 wheelchairs to Ghana. In December, Schoendorfer dropped by, speaking during a lunch-break coin drive and in several classes. The wheels Jones set in motion moved fast.

Sixth-graders in teacher Wendy Collins' language arts classes set the pace, raising $646 in four days with their coin drive. Students tagged relatives and neighbors. Parents pitched the cause to friends, co-workers and employers. One youngster raised $300 by sponsoring a church lunch. Businesses donated. So did community groups.

Eighth-grader Alyssa Adwell helped make a public service announcement on "Northwest Afternoon." She says students were "dumbstruck when Mr. Jones told us we made it. They were surprised because in the beginning it seemed like something that was a good thought, but the goal was so far out there."

Sometime later this year, those 550 wheelchairs will arrive in Ghana, a destination students chose in part because it's where Emmanuel lives and in part because Nelsen teacher Sarah Cockle taught there this year. Jones is clearly pleased. He calls the program "a life-changing thing for a lot of people. I think it's neat that for $50 you can change someone's life."