Press Release
September 26, 2006

Irvine, CA [September 26, 2006] The Free Wheelchair Mission is launching a special campaign to provide the gift of mobility to over 70,000 people this holiday season. This would meet a huge need that could be fulfilled in the next 3-4 months if the donations are met to fulfill this urgent need.

Free Wheelchair Mission’s distribution partners in China, Philippines, Iraq, Chile, Peru and Viet Nam have the capacity to distribute these wheelchairs immediately to the people who need them most. The timing is urgent as these wheelchairs are going to the poorest of the poor in these developing countries.

The most recent reports estimate that over 2% of a developing country’s population urgently needs a wheelchair. This means there are an estimated 100 million people who need wheelchairs worldwide.

“We only give wheelchairs to the poorest of the poor,” stated Don Schoendorfer, president and founder of Free Wheelchair Mission.  “A simple wheelchair to these people would change their lives forever. This is something that we don’t see too much in the United States, but there is a real need out there for wheelchairs. This is the true meaning of the holidays and the giving spirit.”

The Free Wheelchair Mission raised over 30,000 wheelchairs last holiday season and wants to more than double that number this season. The wheelchair, which costs donors only $44.40, has given the gift of mobility to 150,000 people in over 61 countries since its beginning in 2001. The organization’s colossal goal is to distribute 20 million wheelchairs by year 2010.