Wheelchairs for Kids is an organisation headed by the Rotary Club of Scarborough, Western Australia. Way back in 1997/98, Channel 9's 'A Current Affair' broadcast a report of the first 10 Surfers Sunrise wheelchairs giving the gift of mobility to 10 disabled children in Fiji. In consequence, the massive fundraising result not only put our own Wheelchair Trust on the map, but it also provided sufficient spare funding (long since repaid) to sponsor the Rotary Club of Scarborough to establish Wheelchairs for Kids (WfK). "And the rest is history" as they say. WfK since then has delivered well over 50,000 wheelchairs throughout the world.As the image shows, their design is in quite a different class to ours. It also comes at least double the cost of our model. At a recent Zoom meeting between WfK and a number of directors of our Wheelchair Trust, we arranged for a "sample" of their product to be sent to us. Last Wednesday, Geoff Croad (who is a Director of our Wheelchair Trust), together with "foremen" Bryan Tuesley and John Hall, demonstrated that model to our club. As Wheelchair Trust Chairman Larry Murray pointed out, we do not necessarily consider a replacement of our current design, but as an alternative, designed to have a better utilisation of our project shed on days we currently don't operate there. Watch this space...
PS: Bryan Tuesley and John Hall both were successfully nominated for the Central Gold Coast Community Volunteer Awards.The presentation will take place on 23rd August. Congratulations!