BOZEMAN - ROC Wheels in Bozeman has sent 61 wheelchairs, and other mobility equipment, to the town of Lviv in Ukraine.
“It was probably about a month after the war started over in Ukraine, and everyone at ROC, and the Board, wanted to do something — we didn’t quite know what,” ROC Wheels executive director Dean Hampton said. “We figured out that we could help out, taking wheelchairs.”
ROC Wheels is a faith-based non-profit that fits wheelchairs and gait trainers to children that need them worldwide.
Along with the 61 wheelchairs on their way to Ukraine, there is already a plan in the works to send more wheelchairs to the Kopychyntsi District Municipal Hospital in the Ternopil Region.
“We know that the Russians have already left landmines in places that they’ve evacuated out of,” said ROC Wheels Director of Development Sam Knight. “The essential nature of what we do, in terms of the wheelchairs, is really important.”
Knight notes the importance of wheelchairs in a country experiencing war.
“It makes a huge difference for the families if they don’t have to carry a disabled child around, and it gives them a little bit of freedom—even in the midst of all that horror,” he said.
Extended interview with Dean Hampton and Sam Knight of ROC Wheels
