Disabled Costa Ricans aided by gift of wheelchairs

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Last October, Lew Dalessio of Winthrop said he needed lots of wheelchairs by the end of the month for shipment to Costa Rica.

Thanks to your generosity, he received 108 of them and now Costa Ricans who never had wheelchairs before are able to move about with much more freedom.

Not only did Mainers offer Dalessio wheelchairs, they provided crutches, canes and walkers that all arrived in Costa Rica in December and January.

A regular visitor to Costa Rica, Dalessio had discovered that a basic wheelchair in that country can cost up to a year’s wages; there is little government help for those with disabilities; and most disabled people simply go without equipment that enables them to move about more easily.

To all those who donated equipment for the disabled in Costa Rica, Dalessio offers his sincerest thanks.

Working with the Wheel Chair Ministry of Costa Rica, Dalessio is now in the process of restoring 100 wheelchairs, and he needs just 23 more to complete his second shipment to Costa Rica at the end of this month.

When Dalessio arrived in Costa Rica to distribute the equipment, he met one young man with muscular dystrophy who was, at first, “petrified” of the wheelchair.

“He has never seen one before,” Dalessio related. “But then when he understood what it was for, and we tried to get him back into the car to go home, we had to pry his hands away from it.”

Dalessio also discovered not having a wheelchair affected the man’s entire family.

“He had to wait until his father got home from the fields to be brought to the table,” he said. The man sat, all day, in a straight-back chair and had to be carried everywhere. “Now he can get to the table with help from his brothers and sisters.”

The Winthrop man also found a surprising new partner in Costa Rica.

Former Readfield resident Jim Butman is a 30-year resident of Costa Rica who has been leading, with little financial assistance, the small Wheel Chair Ministry of Costa Rica.

The men met through a woman at an English-language newspaper in that country who knew Butman was a member of another organization called Helping Hands.

“I couldn’t believe it when I met him,” Dalessio said of Butman. “It turns out, he grew up just four miles down the road from me, in Readfield. He went to Cony High School. It’s really amazing. He’s 78 years old, retired, and been working on this project for three years. He was always struggling with supplies.”

Butman’s struggle to help others now has been eased, thanks to you and your continued interest in this project.

If you can send wheelchairs for Costa Ricans in need, write to Lew Dalessio, 80 Route 41, Winthrop 04364; call 377-8965 or e-mail Ldeeto@aol.com.

If you would like to make a financial contribution to help defray shipping expenses, send a check to the Winthrop Rotary Club, Winthrop 04364.

For all the young people who participated in the Bangor Public Library 2001 summer reading program, “Time Warp,” head of children’s services Anne Mundy thanks those who helped make it a success.

Many individuals, organizations and businesses “donated their goods, services, knowledge and talents to make the seven-week program good fun for all the participants,” she wrote.

“Their contributions bolstered our efforts and opened doors of opportunity.”

Throughout “Time Warp,” she added, “we read and played, revisited the past, and dreamed of the future.”

A record 192 golfers participated in the recent St. Joseph Healthcare 12th annual Frank Chapman Memorial Golf Tournament, presented by Merrill Bank and the Kozak & Gayer law firm and held at Bangor Municipal Golf Course.

St. Joseph Healthcare President and CEO Sister Mary Norberta extends her thanks to those who supported the event – the players, sponsors, committee members and volunteers – because fund-raisers such as this support St. Joseph’s ability to “continue to offer the latest technology to those in our community.”

Tournament proceeds will help purchase a state-of-the-art laser imager to be used in conjunction with X-ray equipment.

Through the generosity of the National Automobile Dealers Association Charitable Foundation and the Maine Automobile Dealers Association, the Kenduskeag First Responders and the Osborn Fire Department each now has a Lifepak 500 automated external defibrillator.

John Quirk, Maine NADA director, and Thomas Brown Jr., president of MADA, presented the AED units to representatives of the two organizations earlier this summer at Quirk Chevrolet-Quirk Auto Park in Bangor.

AED units help stabilize the heart and are credited with saving the lives of people who otherwise might have died before reaching a medical facility.

Statistics indicate that of the 250,000 Americans who suffer sudden cardiac arrest, 90 percent die before receiving emergency care, and early defibrillation is the single most effective way to increase survival.

People in the areas served by these organizations can thank NADA and MADA for providing equipment to those whose mission is to save lives.

Joni Averill, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor 04402; 990-8288.