Donors Contributed 1,147 Home Health Items to St. Louis HELP Equipment Drive

Author: St. Louis HELP
Published: 26 Oct 2015 - Updated: 12 Sep 2023
Publication Type: Announcement / Notification

Contents: Synopsis - Introduction - Main - Related Publications

Synopsis: St. Louis HELP collects more than 13 tons of used home medical equipment during its equipment donation drive.

Items donated to St. Louis HELP included manual and power wheelchairs, electric hospital beds, shower chairs, canes, crutches, walkers, grab bars, elevated toilet seats, portable commodes, lift chairs, seating cushions, back supports, folding ramps and other devices.

Introduction

St. Louis HELP, the not-for-profit Health Equipment Lending Program that freely loans home medical equipment to any person who needs it, collected a total of 1,147 home health equipment items from 320 donors during its equipment donation drive on Saturday, October 10.

Main Content

"We collected more than 13 tons of used home medical equipment that we will clean and revitalize for free loans to any person or caregiver for as long as they need the equipment," said Executive Director Laura Cannon Singer, who founded the nonprofit organization in 2008.

"This means we are diverting almost 14 tons from the solid waste stream by cleaning, reconditioning, recycling and loaning all of this donated equipment," she said.

"We express our deepest gratitude and thanks to all donors and our amazing volunteers for making this event such a big success - 43 volunteers, eight of our board members and nine staff members participated in this semi-annual day-long event. Now we are busy cleaning and reconditioning the equipment at our warehouse in Olivette."

"We estimate that the cumulative value of the items we collected on October 10 to be $292,203.00. We turn that used equipment into an asset for the needy people that we serve by revitalizing it and loaning it to them unconditionally."

"Nothing goes to waste. Good parts of broken equipment that we collect are used to repair other equipment. Any broken wooden crutches are recycled via a tree chipping company."

Donors dropped off used home health equipment to St. Louis HELP at 14 Walgreen's parking lots in four metro area counties in St. Louis and southwestern Illinois.

Items donated to St. Louis HELP included manual and power wheelchairs, electric hospital beds, shower chairs, canes, crutches, walkers, grab bars, elevated toilet seats, portable commodes, lift chairs, seating cushions, back supports, folding ramps and other devices, Singer said.

In 2014, St. Louis HELP received a prestigious "Point of Light Award" from Points of Light, the volunteer management organization founded in 1990. St. Louis HELP is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization that loans equipment to any person for any health-related reason including those temporarily disabled by injury, illness or surgery; those awaiting insurance company approval; those whose own equipment is being repaired; visitors to St. Louis who can't transport their own equipment; and terminally ill persons.

The organization recently expanded its 5,000 square foot warehouse in Olivette by 2,000 square feet to accommodate increasing requests from people and families throughout metro St. Louis for free loans of revitalized home health equipment that the non-profit organization provides. Call 314 567 4700.

Attribution/Source(s): This quality-reviewed publication was selected for publishing by the editors of Disabled World (DW) due to its relevance to the disability community. Originally authored by St. Louis HELP and published on 26 Oct 2015, this content may have been edited for style, clarity, or brevity.