Mobility Issues All Around

3/8/10

The last week and a half has been interesting in terms of mobility impairments for our staff. It seemed like all of us, for one reason or another, had problems with transportation. 

It all started when Liz noticed her car was overheating and the heat wasn’t working properly. She dropped the car off to her mechanic where they diagnosed and repaired a crack in the radiator. During the repair, she had to arrange for alternative transportation with her son so she could get to and from work.

With Liz’s problem resolved, Johnnie’s wheelchair decided it was next to go on the fritz. I came into the office last Tuesday morning to find Johnnie stuck in his van in the parking lot. One of the main fuses on his Permobil Street power wheelchair blew and he was stranded. We pushed the chair into the office and I went to work trying to find the problem. After a few phone calls to the Permobil tech support department we found the fuse in question and replaced it with the hope of the chair being fixed. The chair powered up and immediately blew the fuse again. Bummer.

As soon as we determined one of the three main logic boards went bad I took a trip down to the warehouse to dig though boxes of used parts. To my amazement, we had two of the same logic boards that were donated by a former vender. I replaced the bad logic board with a new one and fired the chair back up hoping to have the problem resolved. The fuse didn’t blow but we only had 50% functionality of the chair. After a few more hours of troubleshooting, I changed the last of the wiring on the logic board and regained 100% functionality of the chair. I put everything back together, placed Johnnie back in the chair, and felt pretty satisfied I solved such a technical problem.

With Johnnie back up and running, I headed to Traverse City for a beautiful weekend of skiing in Northern Michigan while George took a trip to Hillsdale College for parent’s weekend. As I was preparing to return to Grand Rapids on Sunday morning my car started acting up and I lost all power. Thankfully I found a repair shop that was open and agreed to look at my car. A few hours later I received a text message from George that he lost the steering on his van and had to drive his daughter’s car back to Grand Rapids. Obviously it was our weekend for car troubles. Thankfully the fix was simple and affordable for both of us and we had our vehicles back limited interruption to our normal lives.

My point is you don’t realize how much you rely on something until it is gone. Car troubles put three of us out of commission for a few days and forced us to call on others for our transportation needs. Sure it was a little inconvenient but we were lucky enough to have other alternatives.

Unfortunately we meet people who are stuck in difficult situations like this everyday. Some people have nothing and are in need of the most basic manual wheelchair on the market just so they can get out of the house and get their mail. Others have a wheelchair they received second-hand but are stranded when it brakes down and they can’t afford the repair bill. Thankfully Alternatives in Motion has evolved into an organization that provides more than just wheelchairs. Over the last four years we have developed an extensive inventory of used wheelchair parts and have acquired necessary knowledge and equipment needed to make routine repairs. Having the ability to make these repairs in-house allows us to operate on a leaner budget, be better stewards of donor dollars, and means we can help keep people on the path to independence.

Help us fulfill our mission by making a tax-deductible donation today! Click the “Donate Now” button on the top of this page and help move someone forward.

 ~Matt Chapman
Director of Marketing & Special Events