Crutches for Africa

Since the spring of 2008, one of the first projects of the new Niwot Rotary Club, and the first in the international category, was to join in and support the Crutches4Africa project founded by Mr. David Talbot.

Crutches4Africa collects crutches, canes, walkers ,and wheelchairs and ships them to Africa, and distributes them, free of charge, to people with mobility difficulty. Take a closer look at the project and David's organization at www.crutches4africa.org.

The Niwot Rotary Club has a collection site at the Niwot Market. (Look for the collection barrel by the front door.) One of our largest contributors has been the Niwot Grange, who has had extra crutches from their senior lending program which they have been able to donate. We The Rocky Mountain Christian Church also collected crutches this past summer. We thank all the generous donors to this project.

On October 31, 2008, the student councils and students at Niwot High School and Longmont High School joined us to collect crutches at their football game in Longmont. It was an evening game (and Halloween) and Dorothy, Toto, a pirate, and the gold shirted Rotarians netted a few more crutches for the project.

The Niwot Rotary has collected around 200 crutches and several canes, boots, wheelchairs, and walkers at this time.

David Talbot (who is also in the Evergreen Rotary Club) attended our January 8th meeting to give us an update on recent shipments. Some of our donated crutches have been shipped to Ghana and the rest are currently in a shipment on the way to Kenya. Hoorah, Dave!

Born in 1952, he contracted polio in 1955, and lost necrotic muscle tissue in his left leg and had the right one invasively stunted. He has overcome adversity, is a model citizen, and is a foster parent to numerous kids. Plus a dental hygienist for almost 30 years usually substituting for absent employees. He is been happily married to Candice Talbot since 1976. He has lived in Israel, bicycled
Europe 3 times, worked as a volunteer with Hope 4 Kids international (pulling teeth in Africa), and filmed documentaries for them and for companies in Australia, Israel, and the USA. He owns his own business, Talbot Photography and Videography.

He was nominated for Brawney man of the year (yep, paper towels) and is loved by all who meet him. He is a man of unusual integrity and loyalty. He hopes to snow ski again next winter with his new knee (due to be installed on June 29) and bicycle with his Aussie shepherd Hunter. He hunts for meat for his friends and family and is very successful at it.

When editing films for Hope 4 Kids, he was reminded of all the people there who were unable to move without strenuous help from friends or a tree branch or dragging themselves along on their knuckles and knees. Realizing the number of people in America who have a pair of crutches in their attics or garages, he decided to do something about it. He has put every available minute into this heartfelt passion since that time and we are so proud to know that due to the generosity of others and our own contributions of time and transportation there are at least 9 active participating states and now 5 countries in Africa able to receive and distribute mobility devices. Over 8000 devices are in use today in Africa due to these efforts. Rotary has had a big part in this as they have been very helpful in other states and countries to see that David's dream delivering of a million pairs of crutches in 3 years will be realized.

He will be going to the International Rotary Convention in Birmingham, UK, to promote Crutches4africa which he founded in 2006.