It’s Giving Tuesday, Here are 2 Great Organizations I Want to Recommend

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This Giving Tuesday I want to share information about two wonderful charitable organizations that I’ve personally worked with as an advisor (pro bono, I’ve advised a number of charities in my life, all of it pro bono; I only help organizations that I believe in). The first is focused purely on helping children from low income families, the second is focused on all persons with a serious disability. I’ll share a little information on both, and because I know a good deal about both, I can answer any questions you have about them.

THE KIDS EQUIPMENT NETWORK
The Kids Equipment Network provides children from low-income families with mobility equipment. Even when you have what you think is  “good healthcare insurance,” they often don’t cover prosthetics. A friend of mine who passed several years ago, Greg M., had an accident when he was 14 years old where he lost both legs and an arm. Greg learned how to walk on prosthetic legs to the point where people didn’t know that he didn’t have legs. He walked with a limp; that’s all people noticed. After Greg’s accident, all Greg wanted to do is be like every other kid. Having spent a significant amount of time with children with disabilities, I can tell you that kids with disabilities don’t want to be defined by their disability. Mobility equipment includes wheelchairs, prosthetic legs and arms, etc. Shortly before Greg’s passing several years ago, one of his prosthetic legs broke. When he bought his insurance, his agent told him verbally that it covered his prosthetics. What he found when he had a claim is that the insurer would not cover the replacement of prosthetics, and only offered a significantly less expensive wheelchair. Greg was heartbroken and depressed over it and died around 2 years later, unable to get the replacement prosthetic leg that he needed covered by his insurer and unable to afford it. Greg wasn’t the kind of man who would have been okay with a GoFundMe. He didn’t want what he saw as handouts. I wish I had the money to buy it. No, that’s not a happy story, but it is a story that I think shows how important mobility equipment can be in someone’s life. The Kids Equipment Network gets kids from low-income families mobility equipment at no cost to the families. That makes an enormous difference in the lives of these kids.

The man who founded this organization, Tim Caruso, has been a family friend for decades. He’s one of the most wonderful human beings I’ve ever known. He doesn’t take a salary. Tim was a physical therapist at Shriners Hospital in Chicago when he saw that many low income families with children that he came to know as a PT we’re unable to afford mobility equipment. Tim sought to change that by starting The Kids Equipment Network in his spare time. Since then his organization has worked with childrens’ hospitals like Shriners and St. Jude’s  to get kids with disabilities mobility equipment. They are a very small charity that makes a huge difference in childrens’ lives and can really use your help.

https://tken.org/

 

THE OI FOUNDATION
The OI Foundation is dedicated to helping advance awareness and being a resource for families,  those with osteogenesis imperfecta AKA OI AKA brittle bone disease, medical professionals, and society at large to access resources related to this rare illness. I have loved ones with this illness and several years ago lost a friend, one of the best people I’ve ever known in life, who had OI, my friend Priscilla at the age of 39, following a series of strokes. It’s a very rare illness, and public awareness of it — even my general practitioners– is very low, as is funding for research.

https://oif.org/

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