OT Week & Wheelchairs for Kids

By Carole O’Brien

I want to share with you a special moment we had recently.

As part of Occupational Therapy Week, we recently sponsored a quiz night arranged by Occupational Therapy Australia, OT Service Group and the OTSG Solutions Centre. We also donated a special prize – a Dinner for Two at the Matilda Bay Restaurant. The team at Sobek Pass will know that Shaun and I disappeared a bit early on Friday to go and help set things up.

The quiz night allowed OTs to come together and celebrate their profession and fundraise for Wheelchairs for Kids.

In case you haven’t heard of Wheelchairs for Kids, here is how they describe themselves on their website:

Wheelchairs For Kids is an entirely volunteer-based not-for-profit organisation that designs, builds and distributes rough terrain wheelchairs to children living with disabilities worldwide at no cost to the recipient. Since 1998, we’ve donated more than 50,000 wheelchairs to 90 locations globally, with the help of more than 750 volunteers who donate their time and expertise at our workshop in Perth. Our wheelchairs are purpose-built to withstand the rugged topographies of countries like Afghanistan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Bosnia, Ethiopia and Mozambique, where disability rates are high, and many families can’t afford or access the support they need.

On the night, quiz night participants could fund a wheelchair ($300) and go into the draw to win the Dinner for Two at the Matilda Bay Restaurant that Emprise donated. We were amazed to learn that 13 people/teams each put in $300. That is 13 children who will receive life-changing wheelchairs.

Shaun and I met two key people from Wheelchairs for Kids while helping set up the quiz night. We didn’t attend the Quiz Night but went back later that night to pack up. Ollie couldn’t wait to tell us how successful it had been – he was blown away by people’s generosity in funding 13 wheelchairs – as were we.

I have to say that these are the moments that make all the hours we all put into Emprise worth it. If you’d like to help Wheelchairs for Kids, visit their website and get involved with their important work.