GIVING WHEELS TO THE WORLD The Wheelchair Foundation is Helping People Get Around
	JUNE 2005

by Pete Petrovich
Photos by Russell Byrne

I’m involved in a lot of charity-based organizations and activities — all of them strictly as a volunteer. In fact, I tell people that I have a hard and fast principle that nobody makes any money in any of the community service activities I’m involved in or “I ain’t doing it.” My involvement as a booster for community service began almost two decades ago, when Rose Pierce was running the Community Chest. Every year we would distribute up to 500 holiday baskets to area residents. Rose coordinated everything; she told me what to do and I would do it.

A Life of Community Service
Rose fueled my passion for personal involvement in community development and service projects. I worked alongside Bill Fee at the Cornfest auction for five years. This started as a last-minute idea that raised 3,500 dollars. In the very next year it turned into more than 12,000 dollars. The auction was expense-free because local merchants and private individuals donated a lot of good items.

I’ve also been heavily involved in the community working with the Delta Community Services Senior Citizens Program, sponsoring three senior fundraising events including the St. Patrick’s Day Corn Beef and Cabbage, the Spaghetti Feed, and the Western BBQ. I’m a member of the Historical Society, the Lion’s Club, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and the American Legion. These last two affiliations are due to my service in the U.S Navy during the Vietnam War.

I’m Past President of the Brentwood Unified School District Education Foundation. During my first year in that office we increased our fund-raising from 20 thousand dollars to nearly 100 thousand dollars. I’m effective in this sort of thing because I’m absolutely fearless about asking people to get involved in their community. All of us should work together for the good of the community; nobody should ever be ashamed of asking others to participate and for sure nobody should ever be angered about being asked.

My heart goes out to people in need. Some people in this world are having a tough time; I try to get involved in projects that help them have a good time — or at least a better time. I especially love the personal touch in community service projects. These projects really become fulfilling when they go beyond simply donating money and involve giving of time…. In other words, helping others is best when you can see that you are serving actual human beings.

I have to admit that part of my desire to help people comes from the fact that, for whatever reason, I just like to get involved in projects. “In for a penny; in for a pound” is the philosophy that I run my life by. Everyone in Brentwood knows that I’m co-owner, along with my wife, Rhonda, of two of the premier restaurants — Dai-Iche Sushi Restaurant and Peewee Muldoons Bar & Grill.

I guess everybody in East County by now knows that I also served for over eight years as a member of the Brentwood City Council. I’m proud of my accomplishments during the years that I was in that position. For example, I was largely responsible for getting the John Muier Medical Center into town. I worked with Ken Anderson, the CEO. I was always on the phone with him. I think one of the reasons that this actually happened was I was driving him crazy. There’s a chance that he put up that building just to get me off his back!

What a lot of people don’t know is that I’m also a working stiff. I have a real job as Consultant Engineer for a number of worldwide companies, advising them on broadband communication networks, including cable, fiber, satellite, broadcast, and microwave. I extend my “in for a pound” philosophy to my professional life and was once honored as the Member of the Year by the Society of Cable Television Engineers.

Getting Wheels to Handicap People
My favorite service project these days is working as Chairman of the Annual Wheelchair Foundation Golf Tournament. If you never had the experience of putting a needy handicap person into a wheelchair for the first time, you can’t imagine what it is like. We ship these wheelchairs in special containers, each one holding 240 chairs. Each wheelchair costs the Foundation 150 dollars. We can deliver a full container, worth $36,000, to almost anyplace in the world. We work with volunteer groups that are local to the place where the delivery is being made, which includes Rotary Clubs, Churches — especially SDA, Lutheran, Greek Orthodox, and LDS — and local Department of Defense Sister Cities organizations.

The Wheelchair Foundation has delivered chairs to needy people in countries around the world — from 5,810 in Afghanistan to 2,050 in Zimbabwe, with an astonishing 350,000+ delivered to 140 other countries in between. Since March of 2001 Rotary Clubs, all by themselves, have placed more than 90,000 wheelchairs in 90 countries!

The Board of Directors for the Wheelchair Foundation includes such notables as Willie McCovey, Nelson Mandela, Jerry Lewis, Steve Largent, Whitey Ford, Ed McMahon, Glen Pride from Eagles, and Mick Fleetwood from Fleetwood Mac. The list of volunteers goes on and on.

I’ve been involved in providing wheelchairs for people as young as three years old and as old as 85. As I write this I have a wheelchair sitting in the back of my car that I’m delivering this afternoon. This Wheelchair Foundation has become a real passion of mine. The foundation representatives know that I’ll do anything they ask me to do, and will do it at my own expense.

I love this organization! Even a big blustery guy like me gets “smoke in my eyes” sometimes when I see a needy person getting his or her first wheelchair. It gave me a very warm feeling, for example, when I once lifted an elderly lady who had been handicapped all her life into her first wheelchair. For the first time she had the gift of mobility. I’ll never forget the stars that seemed to shine in her eyes. I’ve personally delivered wheelchairs to places like Vietnam and Mexico.

I’ve personally made deliveries of wheelchairs to Cuba. Since Cuba still retains its non gratis rating with the U.S. State Department, this was an exceptional and interesting delivery project. I was able to bypass State Department travel restrictions to that country by getting from the State Department a special pass or license for “humanitarian reasons.”

Cuba turned out to be different than I imagined. The people were friendly and courteous. No hostility was expressed towards Americans the entire time I was in the country. I didn’t see anybody with a machine gun. I was impressed with the country. I’m looking forward to going back.

On August 15 we’re putting on our third fundraiser golf tournament. In the first three years we raised a total of 750,000 dollars for the organization. And this was after expenses. The Founder of the Foundation, Ken Behring, matched the figure so the event was actually responsible for raising 1,500,000 dollars. This year we plan to top 275,000 dollars. Our logo features a lanyard with a globe and the heartwarming words, “Circling the globe with friendship, hope, and mobility. As of this writing we’re talking to celebrities such as Steve Largent, Steve Young, Willy McCovey, and Ed McMahon about coming to help us push this year’s program over the top. Chase Chevrolet from Stockton is this year’s title sponsor.

Peggy Schuitemaker plays an active role in the Foundation — just as she plays an active role in every part of her life. Like all the rest of us, Peggy donates her hours of service as a volunteer. The only person who is paid is Kris Nunn, the coordinator. Kris has an organization that we use, called “Beyond Golf,” which is in the business of coordinating charitable golf events.

So we’ll see you on August 15 at the Brentwood Country Club. If you want to do something really substantial to help us with this noble effort, give us a ring. Many opportunities remain for volunteers to jump in and help make this project work. I would encourage you to get involved and start reaping the happy internal rewards that come to us when we do something to actually alleviate some of the suffering that the poor people in this world constantly endure. Call me at 925-634-1203 or check our Website at www.wheelchairfoundation.org