www.freewheelchairmission.org/ohiovalley

Tomorrow, Wheeling WV cyclist John Warnick will begin a 1,900 mile bicycle trip starting in Key West Florida, and ending in Wheeling WV in late January 2011.

Nineteen. Hundred. Miles!

You can follow along with John’s journey on his website Wheels4wheels to Wheeling. He has setup a special donation site on the Free Wheelchair Mission site, where he is asking people to buy wheels for $15 a piece in hopes of raising $1,000 along the way. You can donate here.

John has already raised awareness in the Ohio Valley, with a great feature article in the Wheeling News Register, and a segment on WTRF Channel 7.

You can see the Channel 7 segment here.

Between now and September 11th, we will be selling raffle tickets for a chance to win a set of FOUR Club Level seats for the Sunday Night  game at Heinz Field between the Pittsburgh Steelers and New England Patriots.

This set of 4 tickets has $1,000 face value, so we are selling each chance to win the set for $20 per raffle ticket.

If you are interested in buying a ticket, please email us through our contact form for details.

With everyone’s help we’ll sell out of tickets before Chuck & Suzy fire the gun at the road race and raise more than 300 people off the ground!

Several events are scheduled throughout the day, and FWM founder Don Schoendorfer and his wife Laurie will be joining us for the day!

A fun-filled day will kick off at 10:00 am with the “Run, Walk, and Roll” race covering 2.62 miles (the ten-year marathon). This is the third edition of the race, and director Chuck Miller is expecting a great turnout this year.

To learn more, you can register online, or download the race application and mail it in.

The fun continues with our attempt to break the Guinness  record for the largest potluck dinner! From noon to 2:00 at WesBanco Arena, teams of five or more will assemble with their favorite dishes. Each team member is responsible for raising funds for at least one wheelchair, and bringing their own dish for the team to share.

Interested in being a team captain and forming a team? You’ll find everything you need right here including a poster, and registration form.

Be sure to stick around after the dinner for the Be The Blessing Music Fest outside at the Heritage Port. Several bands are on tap and will play from 2:00 to 6:00.

It will be a great day in Wheeling, and we hope to see you there!

This year, Free Wheelchair Mission Ohio Valley was fortunate to participate.  

The Easter Seals team brought the torch from their building to the front of the Free Wheelchair Mission office near Edgington Lane.  

Here are a few pictures from the event (click to view full size): You may view all of the photos on the FWMOV Flickr account.
  

Waiting for the torch  

The handoff  

Relay team  

Our handoff with Wheeling mayor, the Honorable Andy McKenzie

The invitation explained that it was to be a get-together, and please don’t bring any gifts. For those who would like to bring a gift, please consider making a donation to Free Wheelchair Mission instead.

Free Wheelchair Mission? What is that?

After reading through the website, and watching a few video’s, I was hooked.

Sure, I had given to charities before. I supported the local United Way chapter at work (how cliché, “I gave at the office”). But before hearing about FWM, I never felt the connection from my simple donation, to the ultimate impact of that gift.

After watching a video, I “got it.”

Sixty dollars. That’s all it takes to change someones life. Sixty dollars.

From then on, I looked at things differently. It certainly became more difficult to walk through Target or any other store, and see an impulse buy, and not think about what that amount of money would mean to someone living on the ground.

It has been my experience that once someone hears about the mission, they are forever changed.

This got me thinking. I know my story, but how did you hear about the Free Wheelchair Mission?

I posed the question on both Twitter and Facebook, and here are the responses:

Those are our stories, what about yours? How did you first hear about FWM? What about it “hooked” you?

We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Two meetings were held during the week with a group of fifteen volunteers who have stepped up to lead a particular portion of this summers campaign. Another meeting was held on Sunday to update volunteers on both the upcoming plans, as well as review has been accomplished so far.

First a recap. Back in September of 2009, Be The Blessing kicked of the “Ohio Valley Campaign”. As part of the effort to become the kindest community on earth, the Ohio Valley Campaign set out to raise one million dollars for the Free Wheelchair Mission.

Since 2009, many volunteers and donors have been busy getting the word out about Be The Blessing, and Free Wheelchair Mission. To date, over $200,000 has been raised towards the million dollar goal!

Although not all events have been finalized, FWM-OV has plans for many exciting things through September 11, 2010. There will be presentations, parties, info tables, and more. All of this will culminate with a 5k road race in downtown Wheeling on September 11th, with (hopefully) the new Guinness World Record for the largest potluck dinner that afternoon! We are also very excited to host FWM founder Don Schoendorfer and his wife , Laurie who will be in town to help celebrate the year-long effort.

Stay tuned to this blog throughout the summer for details of where to find FWMOV, and for opportunities to get involved.