Amilcar Hernandez Juarez had a sense of impending doom whenever he sat down on his old wheelchair.
It would regularly break down and leave him stranded, with no choice but to call his friends or family members for help.
“You know they have something to do,” said Juarez, 48, who was born with spina bifida that left him unable to walk.
In 2015, however, Juarez received a new wheelchair from Free Wheelchair Mission, an Irvine-based charity that celebrated its millionth wheelchair donation at a gala Thursday, July 13.
Juarez’s new wheelchair cost just $80 to produce and ship. But Juarez said its ruggedness enabled him to pursue far more activities, such as traveling downtown to sell his handcrafted piñatas.
Everyday activities, such as putting his 3-year-old daughter on his lap and taking her outside, no longer feel foreign to him, Juarez said.
“I can do things when I want to,” he said.
Don Schoendorfer started Free Wheelchair Mission because he saw stories like Juarez’s. He saw a woman in Morocco dragging herself across streets and others who had to crawl simply to get food or to take a shower.
Schoendorfer built his first four wheelchairs in his garage in 1999, basing designs on plastic lawn chairs. The wheelchairs can now be folded and include cushions and adjustable footrests.
But Schoendorfer said the wheelchairs are kept simple to keep costs low.
The charity had donated about 100 wheelchairs by 2001. But Free Wheelchair Mission is now aiming to produce and ship 80,000 wheelchairs in 2018 alone, with a staff of about 30 people and more than 4,000 volunteers around the globe.
The charity has shipped wheelchairs to 93 countries, including El Salvador, where Juarez lives. It has even shipped two containers of wheelchairs to North Korea.
“We don’t discriminate,” he said.
Schoendorfer said he used to ask many questions of wheelchair recipients, thinking wheelchairs should be given to those who are poor. But he said he realized disability itself often brings economic poverty, especially when family members have to support those who are disabled.
“If you are disabled, you are gonna be poor,” he said. “Your family is going to be poor.”
Gregory Grizzle, a 39-year-old Jamaica resident, suffered a spinal cord injury ten years ago while working a construction job, leaving him unable to walk.
The new wheelchair he received has given Grizzle a new level of independence, he said. He is now attending Portmore College in Jamaica to study computer engineering.
“They are my new legs,” Grizzle said.
The charity is building its test lab in Irvine to shorten the time it takes to perform quality control on each wheelchair.
Schoendorfer said he is also planning to work on adjusting wheelchair designs to suit people with different needs, such as those with cerebral palsy.
