East Cobb Rotary Aiding Relief Program

 A 40-foot cargo container left Denver this week, stuffed to the gills with crutches, canes, walkers and wheelchairs, headed to Kenya and Uganda for people crippled by illness, injuries or civil wars.

The mission of Crutches 4 Africa, a six-year-old nonprofit organization based in Colorado, is to distribute these mobility devices “to help raise the hindered, to lift them from the dust, and help them on their way.”

Thanks to a group of Rotary club members in Cobb County, the shipments sent by Crutches 4 Africa are getting bigger – a lot bigger.

“It is stunning, jaw-dropping,” C4A founder David Talbot said about the Cobb group’s commitment to the project. “And it seems to be only scratching the surface.”

In its first five years, Talbot said, his organization sent about 10,000 pairs of crutches, canes, walkers and wheelchairs to various countries and cities in Africa. In two weeks, the Rotarians in Cobb got commitments for 30,000 more.

“We took a different approach,” said Bob Odegard, the East Cobb Rotary Club member who jumpstarted the local drive. “There aren’t a lot of organizations that can handle the logistics of something like this. But Rotary is a huge organization.”

So how did four Rotary clubs in Cobb jump into the center of an international relief program?  It does have a lot to do with the scope and mission of Rotary.  But it also is proof that big changes can come from small beginnings.

Richard Cope, a member of the Marietta Rotary Club, met David Talbot in 2009 at the Rotary International convention in Birmingham, England. Talbot had a booth there to publicize his project among other Rotarians.

 “He is a polio survivor.  He had been to Africa. I was impressed with the guy,” Cope said. “I came home and pushed the idea as a [Rotary] project.

 “David Talbot said to me, ‘Spending money on water wells or spending money on education projects is important, but if people can’t get up off the ground, it’s all wasted.’ That really struck a cord with me.”

 The clubs gathered together some frequent flyer miles and brought Talbot to Georgia. He spoke to Rotary clubs in East Cobb, Marietta, Smyrna and North Cobb.

“Everyone thought it was a good idea and decided they’d help us,” Cope said. “It was easy to get started. All we needed were barrels to put out at businesses and churches. We got about 200 items and thought that was pretty good.”

Odegard, who handles corporate sales and marketing for his company, DATAMATX, attended a MedTrade convention at the Georgia World Congress Center. “A lot of the companies dealt with medical supplies,” Odegard said. “After I talked to them about my business [print and electronic billing], talked to them about Crutches 4 Africa and asked if they might have returned items, seconds or old models they might contribute.  I never thought they would have so much.”

Odegard started collecting business cards.

His first two calls were hits. A company in Florida gave a few hundred items, and then a company with offices in Pennsylvania and Utah gave commitments for 5,000 pairs of crutches and 25,000 canes, some of which are in this week’s shipments to Kenya and Uganda.

When Talbot heard about the 30,000 commitments, “he was flabbergasted,” said Cope, who works for USA Cargo Services on Terrell Mill Road in East Cobb.  “He’s been more than grateful.”

Odegard, who lives in the Tally Green subdivision off Lower Roswell Road, figures he’ll get more, jokingly confessing that some might be close to home. “I was on crutches two years ago after rupturing an Achilles tendon,” he said. “I got better and hung ‘em up, and they’re still hanging there.”

That fits right in with Cope’s message to potential individual donors in Cobb: “Remember when Aunt Gertrude broke her hip and you’ve had that stuff in the basement ever since? That’s what we need, your leftover crutches, canes, walkers and wheelchairs.”

Cope’s knowledge of shipping logistics and Rotary’s international reach have fit well with David Talbot’s mission at Crutches 4 Africa. The supplies, Cope said, are delivered directly to Rotarians in Africa, who help distribute them to hospitals, clinics and even people in the streets.

“Many people in Africa have to walk miles for water and basic services,” Cope said. “Being crippled can equal a death sentence.”

Talbot said he was in Uganda in 2005 working on a documentary film when he saw a woman whose right leg was bent back so severely that her foot was touching the back of her right shoulder. 

“She was using a gnarly green branch as a hopping stick,” Talbot said. “That was the oak-seed moment for me.”

Talbot, 58, is a polio survivor. He contracted the disease when he was two years old in 1955, the year the Salk vaccine was first distributed. “Physical challenge became important to me,” Talbot said. “I played football all through high school.  I ran with the bulls in Spain.”

But the effects of the disease have manifested, and Talbot is struggling with his own mobility again.

“Africans see me on crutches.  They see me as someone they can relate to,” he said.  “They think people in North America have no problems, and they are still walking for water.”

The eradication of polio has been a Rotary project for more than 20 years, so the connection with Crutches 4 Africa is a good fit. “Rotary’s main push is eliminating polio from the Earth, and this is the year that might take place,” Odegard said.

When the container leaves Colorado this week bound for Africa, it will be carrying between 2,500 and 6,000 pieces of equipment to aid in that fight, depending on how many wheelchairs are in the delivery.

“Wheelchairs take up more space,” Talbot said. “No matter what it is, it costs us [on average] $3 a unit to get them to Africa.  A cup of coffee.”