FREE WHEELCHAIR MISSION FOUNDER HONORED WITH MEDALLION FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP AWARD
The Beta Gamma Sigma Award Recognizes Those Who Successfully Combine Innovative Business Achievement with Service to Humanity

SANTA ANA, CA [March 3, 2005]— Free Wheelchair Mission founder Dr. Don Schoendorfer has been chosen by Beta Gamma Sigma, the national business honor society with more than 520,000 members, to receive its 2005 Medallion for Entrepreneurship award honoring his incredible work serving the disabled poor in developing countries.  Schoendorfer, who earned a Ph.D. from MIT in Mechanical Engineering specializing in biomedical engineering, has developed and distributed thousands of the most rugged and cost-effective wheelchairs in existence – a $3 plastic lawn chair with a pair of mountain bike tires, total cost including distribution: $41.17.   “My approach to this design was to produce the least expensive durable design to satisfy a large portion of the world's need for wheelchairs,” said Schoendorfer.  “Over 130 million crippled people live without wheelchairs and we hope to drastically lower that number through our creative partnering, efficient manufacturing and mass distribution.”

The Loyola Marymount University chapter of Beta Gamma Sigma nominated Schoendorfer and will host the awards brunch at 11 a.m. on campus Sunday, March 13, 2005 at the Hilton Building, room 100.  “We are very excited to honor Dr. Schoendorfer and his organization as they have exhibited an outstanding example of what it is to be an inventive humanitarian,” said Dr. John Wholihan, dean of Loyola Marymount’s College of Businesss Administration and vice president of Beta Gamma Sigma.  Past award winners include founders and CEOs of Kinko’s, Inc., Chick-fil-A Restaurants, AFT Enterprises, Inc., and Great American Cookies. 

The Free Wheelchair Mission has distributed over 57,000 wheelchairs for free to the disabled in 43 countries, including India, Iraq, Peru, China, Angola, Zimbabwe, Mexico, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.  

About Free Wheelchair Mission

Free Wheelchair Mission, the Orange County California based non-profit organization, committed to providing the transforming gift of mobility to the physically disabled poor in developing countries creatively partners with like-minded international humanitarian and indigenous organizations to place 20 million wheelchairs by the year 2010.  For more information, visit www.freewheelchairmission.org .

About Beta Gamma Sigma

Beta Gamma Sigma, the honor society serving business programs accredited by AACSB International - The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, has inducted more than 520,000 outstanding students into membership since its founding in 1913. Members have served in corporate, government, non-profit, educational, and other management positions at every level of responsibility. For more information, visit www.betagammasigma.org .

About Loyola Marymount University

Founded in 1911 and located in Los Angeles, Loyola Marymount is the only Jesuit/Marymount University in the southwestern United States.  It is institutionally committed to Roman Catholicism and takes its fundamental inspiration from the traditions of its sponsoring religious orders.  Loyola Marymount has always been, above all, a student-centered university.  For more information, visit www.lmu.edu .