Wonderful Wheelchairs team restores mobility and independence

Greg Harrington is at work in the deep, mysterious area below Cayuga Skilled Nursing Facility. Wednesdays and Fridays, Harrington and his Wonderful Wheelchairs team are in their cavern from 9 to 11:30 a.m. Although Harrington is known to some as “Mr. Wonderful Wheelchairs,” he always passes the credit on to the original movers and shakers: Ardith Bennett, Lynn Gitlow, Ellie and Monte May and Professor Carol John, going back 15 years now.

“Carol taught occupational therapy [OT] students at Ithaca College and provided OT to rehab patients at Cayuga Ridge,” Harringon said. “She found Cayuga Ridge had stockpiled more than 75 broken wheelchairs. Carol applied for a grant and used the money to buy tools at Montgomery Ward. She and Ardie got the project rolling.”

After a long, mysterious walk within a vast open area (like a movie set for a detective story), one encounters aisles of neatly stocked wheelchairs, tall rollators (stand-up walkers), power scooters and power wheelchairs, all tagged and numbered. Along all the side walls are amazingly neat, organized sections of tools, leg rests, arm rests, chair cushions and so much more. The rest of the seven-person WW Team, including one of the newest volunteers, Joe Amato, all work on different categories of these invaluable transport devices in their own workstations. Among the six volunteers, they have lots of expertise regarding electronic equipment and electrical and mechanical engineering. And they have contacts for anything else they need  to enable all of us to have the best working, most comfortable and practical means of transportation.

Tom Every, who specializes in power chairs and scooters, is in his ninth year volunteering at Wonderful Wheelchairs. He explains that with generous donations in the past, WW has been able to buy special software, so that the steering mechanism for power chairs or scooters can be adjusted with specialized electronic equipment. For example, if the operator’s hand shakes from Parkinson’s Disease, Every can minimize the effect of hand-quivering or shaking on the steering wheel.

Every explains that wheelchairs are mostly used indoors, while power chairs and scooters are more likely used outdoors. The range of sizes, tires, leg rests and customizable features is enormous.

To make equipment transportable in a car, bus or van, some of the scooters are collapsible. For some folks, their power vehicle is their main form of transportation to get to work or to a store. And Tompkins County also has Kristen Wells’ incredible TCAT Gadabout paratransit program, which can transport people in their wheelchairs!

Every, formerly an electronics engineer who served in industry at NCR in South Carolina, transferred to NCR Ithaca, close to where he grew up. After NCR, Tom taught engineering as a professor at Cornell University.

“Volunteering at Wonderful Wheelchairs keeps one’s mind and body active. And it is a great way to help others,” Every said. “I helped care for my mother when she was wheelchair-bound. I would repair her wheelchair, and I know what a lifeline a wheelchair can be — but it has to be maintained.”

Every remembers that Monty May, who with his partner, Ellie May, facilitated many other community programs, nudged WW to take on power equipment. Every notes that currently WW has an inventory of about 40 power wheelchairs and about 40 manual ones. He mentions that anyone seeking to borrow, rent, purchase or donate equipment can see available inventory on the WW website (created by a Cornell graduate student volunteer in Computer Science): https://www.wonderfulwheelchairs.info/home.

Ron Harris has been with WW for five years. While attending some of Lifelong’s terrific programs, he heard about WW. After a few years of retirement from his job as an electrician at Cargill, Harris was open to more social contact. “Every day I would walk my dog around our rural home and we would watch the cows,” he said. “I took a job driving a bus for a senior residence, and I saw how crucial wheelchairs were to so many seniors. … And so many needed to have their brakes adjusted or some other enhancement, but [the seniors] had nowhere to turn.”

“Later, I shattered my femur and my ankle,” Harris said. “For months of convalescence, I was wheelchair-bound. Seeing the world from a wheelchair is an eye opener.”

Eventually Harris used a rollator, which was great for a tall chap. “When I was stronger, I volunteered at WW,” he said. “I fix rollators and show people how to use them. I adjust wheelchairs and scooters, too. [I] change wheels, tires, bearings, batteries and more. If someone calls Wonderful Wheelchairs, I may be able to come and address a problem.”

Ray Coolbaugh from Trumansburg knew Harris from their remote-control small airplane meet-ups. When Coolbaugh saw a neighbor, Stan Hugo, another WW volunteer, wearing a Wonderful Wheelchairs shirt (made of very handsome denim), he inquired about it. Thanks to his years as a professor of physics at Colgate University, Coolbaugh knows how to make things work.

Suffice it to say, Wonderful Wheelchairs is a local treasure, enabling all of us to have as much accessible activity as possible. And even if you don’t need a wheelchair maintained, you may know someone who does. If you are receiving taxable retirement distributions, a heroic way to minimize your taxes is to send a check to Wonderful Wheelchairs, which offers such wonderful services, c/o Cayuga Nursing and Rehabilitation, 1229 Trumansburg Road, Ithaca, NY 14850.