As the holiday season winds down, Ed Noll and others from the community are hard at work, creating a gift almost guaranteed to be one of the best its recipient has ever been given.
Noll and fellow members of the Goodrich United Methodist Church Men’s group, along with others from throughout the community and country, have been making Physical Energy Transportation (P.E.T.) chairs.
‘It’s a hand crank wheelchair,? explains Noll, a former Goodrich teacher. ‘We’re making all the floors.?
The chairs are the brainchild of Reverend Mel West from Columbia, Mo.
West says he was first alerted to the need for hand-crank wheelchairs in underdeveloped countries by a missionary friend of his 11 years ago.
The missionary told West about people who, unable to walk, were forced to drag themselves around for mobility.
?’They’ve been scuttling around on the ground like a crab,? that’s the words of the missionary when he described it,? says West.
The rough terrain of many of these regions of the world presented West with an additional problem, since a traditional wheelchair is difficult to propel through sand and brush.
West, who describes himself as ‘a do-er?, soon teamed up with friend and product designer, Earl Miner, to create a hand-crank wheelchair capable of navigating rough terrain and with hauling capacity so the user could transport items as well as themselves.
After approximately five prototypes, the duo shipped their creation out to a needy candidate in the former Zaire in Africa. West says they were thinking if the chair functioned there, it would function anywhere.
It was a success.
Now P.E.T.s are assembled by volunteers in 11 places throughout the country, and still more volunteers create the parts to make the chairs, says West. About 2,000 of the chairs (which West says cost about $250 to make without factoring in donations) are distributed each year to 58 countries, at no cost to those in need.
‘We work through frontline health care agencies that are already where the need is,? says West. ‘These are people that are already there, that know these people (in need), that have them on their list and help them as best they can.?
‘If (the recipients) were put in a parade with one foot of distance between them, that’d be a parade two miles long,? says West.
Some of the people who are in need of the P.E.T.s were involved in land mine accidents, explains West. Others need them because of polio or diabetes. West recalls one man who lost both legs trying to hop a train to pick coffee.
?(P.E.T.) gives them a whole new life,? says West. ‘They rise up to a totally new life of mobility, hope, pride, dignity, comfort and productivity.?
For West, the production of the chairs became part of what he describes as a ‘faith-based, volunteer-powered, humanitarian, worldwide project,? and a personal mission.
A mission to which Noll, and GUMC pastor Karl Zeigler, were first introduced while at a convention for United Methodist men in July 2005.
‘We saw (a P.E.T.), we actually drove it,? says Zeigler. ‘We thought they were outstanding.?
‘We saw this as being the best mission project we could even imagine,? agrees Noll.
A year later, the group have taken five shipments of wood floors to Missouri, to be incorporated into P.E.T.s.
For his part, Noll donates use of his wood shop at his home in Hadley to make the weather-resistant floors from wood donated by local companies.
‘Four pieces (of wood) make a floor. Three of us can make 100 pieces an hour,? says Noll.
So taken with the project was Noll, that last year for his 80th birthday, he says he requested no gifts be given to him, but rather that money be donated for the chairs. His request was granted, and Noll says he made almost $1,100 for the cause.
Shipping is the biggest expense with the chairs, and Noll is ever vigilant for creative ways to ship pallets of floors for the chairs for less. Currently, the group have 200 ready to go.
Without a doubt, many in need eagerly await completion of the P.E.T.s.
West says 21 million people in need of the chairs is a ‘conservative estimate.? ‘It could be three or four times that,? he adds.
‘I want (people) to realize how many, many, many people there are in the world who? because of no fault of their own? end up crawling on the ground and have no other option unless they receive a P.E.T.,? says West.
‘These persons have the same potential, aspirations, hopes and dreams as we have,? says West. ‘With the gift of a P.E.T., these can be achieved.?
‘If (a person) makes the gift of a P.E.T.,? says West, ‘they may be making the most dramatic change in the life of another human being that they have ever made.?