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South Dakota inmates construct wheelchairs for disabled children
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FarkDepartment of Corrections inmates at the South Dakota State Penitentiary have become a key cog in a group effort to provide disabled children with wheelchairs.
Penitentiary inmates have constructed about 900 wheelchairs and refurbished thousands of others for Hope Haven International –- a nonprofit group that distributes the chairs to other countries –- since the mid 1990s, according to Hope Haven chief operations officer Calvin Helmus.
In recent years, a dimension of that project has been aimed specifically at providing wheelchairs for Iraqi children.
“Wheelchairs for Iraqi Kids,” was started in 2005. The project teams the state penitentiary with Hope Haven and “Reach Out and Care (ROC) Wheels,” which design special pediatric wheelchairs.
About 200 of the ROC Wheels pediatric chairs were shipped last year, according to Helmus.
The chairs are constructed in the penitentiary, then shipped overseas and handed out to needy children by civilian contractor Brad Blauser, who started the project.
Blauser is in Iraq and did not return a request for comment on the project.
However, he told CNN.com in a recent story that the reaction by the Iraqi families has been overwhelming.
“The most affecting thing about this whole wheelchairs for children is when the parents realize the gift that is being given to their children, and they reach out and hug you,” he said. “The tears are running down from their eyes, and they say, ‘We never thought that you could do this.’”
The Iraqi children wheelchair program is one of many undertaken by Hope Haven. Overall, the nonprofit group has distributed more than 71,000 wheelchairs in 104 countries since 1994.
Their partnership with the state penitentiary happened by chance, Helmus said.
He said a Hope Haven staff member spoke in a Sioux Falls church and happened to run into a state penitentiary staff member. The two had a discussion about the wheelchair project, and a partnership was eventually formed.
Helmus says having the labor of the penitentiary inmates is instrumental in providing the wheelchairs.
“The available labor was very important to us,” he said.
Andrew Babcock, executive director of Reach Out and Care Wheels, said the project with the state penitentiary has been crucial in helping his organization provide the wheelchairs to Iraqi children.
“I know it means a great deal to the prisoners, and we’re happy to empower them while they’re serving their time,” he said.
Bob Rae, the director of Pheasant Land Industries, which operates under the auspices of the Department of Corrections, oversees the prison end of the chair construction. He said the prisoners are more than happy to construct the wheelchairs that are shipped to Iraq and other countries.
He said the project gives inmates “a little spending money and gives them a skill they can use on the outside.”
Inmates are paid 25 cents an hour to do the work, which is voluntary.
“It’s not a lot, but it keeps them busy, and they’re proud of what they’re doing,” he said.
Rae said there are 60 inmates working on the wheelchair project, which includes the construction and refurbishment of wheelchairs. Some of the inmates had previous experience in similar tasks. Training sessions are also held.
The pediatric wheelchairs that go to Iraq are designed for children with cerebral palsy and other disabilities that limit their mobility. The chairs are capable of fully reclining, even while holding whatever position is necessary for the child’s comfort, Babcock said.
“It’s the farthest thing possible from a standard wheelchair,” he said. “It’s a fully adjustable pediatric children’s wheelchair.”
The wheelchairs would normally cost $3,000 to purchase in the United States. Babcock said having the DOC inmates build the wheelchairs brings that cost down to only the $300 needed to buy the materials and ship the chairs overseas.
The $300 is covered by people all over the United States who volunteer to sponsor a chair. Different foundations and grants also help pay for the chairs, he said. For information on sponsoring a chair, visit www.rocwheels.org.
The success of the project is providing a blueprint for having the wheelchairs produced in other locations, Babcock said. Babcock compares ROC Wheels goal to “teaching a man to fish.”
The group wants to set up manufacturing areas in different countries that can produce the chairs.
“Their success has proved our template does work, and now it’s being applied to other countries,” he said. “We’d be nowhere without Hope Haven and the prisoners and the prison operation and everyone involved there.”
He said one location has been set up in Vietnam and hopes there will be others to follow.
After the wheelchairs are constructed at the penitentiary, they are shipped to Iraq in groups of about 200.
The distribution is done by Blauser and members of the U.S. Army who are serving in Iraq. After the chairs arrive in Iraq, they are fitted specifically for the needs of the kids.
Babcock said the parents of disabled children in some of the countries where the chairs are distributed had no choice but to carry their children around before the wheelchairs were made available.
Contact Ryan Woodard at 394-8412 or ryan.woodard@rapidcityjournal.com
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