{"id":559,"date":"2012-08-28T18:29:10","date_gmt":"2012-08-28T18:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/facingdisability.com\/?p=559"},"modified":"2017-03-24T19:58:16","modified_gmt":"2017-03-24T19:58:16","slug":"foundation-donates-high-tech-wheelchairs-to-people-in-need","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/facingdisability.com\/blog\/foundation-donates-high-tech-wheelchairs-to-people-in-need","title":{"rendered":"Foundation donates high-tech wheelchairs to people in need"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Christopher Torres, an 11-year-old Florida boy diagnosed with Angelman Syndrome, a neuro-genetic disorder that prevented him from walking, needed a wheelchair. But Christopher\u2019s father could not afford to buy one and did not qualify for insurance assistance, so he built a wheelchair for his son out of a wooden kitchen chair.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Fortunately, on April 8, 2011, Christopher received a new, custom-built $8,600 wheelchair donated by the <a href=\"http:\/\/darrellgwynnfoundation.org\/index.htm\">Darrel Gwynn Foundation<\/a>, which gives brand-new manual and power wheelchairs to children and adults who are permanently disabled and do not have insurance coverage.<\/p>\n<p>The foundation was created in 2002 by Darrel Gwynn, a former professional drag racer, who is no stranger to the wheelchair. In 1990, at the peak of his career, during an exhibition race in England, his vehicle crashed into a retaining wall at about 240 mph. He lost his left arm and was paralyzed from the chest down.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was very fortunate to win a lot of races in my day, but now they seem insignificant compared to the race to help others through the Darrel Gwynn Foundation,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>While there are many organizations that recycle used wheelchairs, DGF is unusual in that all its wheelchairs are new, high-tech and highly customized. DGF donates 35 to 50 wheelchairs, valued from $6,000 to $40,000, every year to individuals who meet the wheelchair donation program criteria.<\/p>\n<p>Along with its wheelchair donation program, the foundation also has a <a href=\"http:\/\/darrellgwynnfoundation.org\/prevention.htm\">spinal cord injury education and prevention program<\/a> to raise awareness about SCI.<\/p>\n<p>To learn more about the Darrel Gwynn Foundation, click on the video below:<\/p>\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>If you have a story about a wheelchair donation that made a difference, please comment below:<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"border-radius: 2px; text-indent: 20px; width: auto; padding: 0px 4px 0px 0px; text-align: center; font: bold 11px\/20px 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #ffffff; background: #bd081c  no-repeat scroll 3px 50% \/ 14px 14px; position: absolute; opacity: 1; z-index: 8675309; display: none; cursor: pointer;\">Save<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Darrel Gwynn, a professional drag racer paralyzed after an accident, founded an organization that gives wheelchairs to people without insurance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":236567,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[644],"tags":[5942,5941,5944,5943,5948,5947,5763,5122,5945,5665,5946,5433],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/facingdisability.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/facingdisability.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/facingdisability.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facingdisability.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facingdisability.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/facingdisability.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facingdisability.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/facingdisability.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facingdisability.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facingdisability.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}