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Robert Frank, City Editor frank@heraldnet.com

The wheels keep on rolling

Program gets recycled medical equipment into hands that need it

By Sharon Salyer / Herald Writer

EDMONDS - Bill Brayer just couldn't let a good thing go to waste.

When relatives of a patient who had died said they would be willing to donate a wheelchair, bed and other medical equipment if Brayer could find someone who needed it, he said he would help.

He stored the equipment in his garage and sent a note to 500 people on a multiple sclerosis e-mail list.

"It didn't last hardly any time at all," Brayer said of the initial 1999 donation.

Michael O'Leary / The Herald Roger Oliver is a volunteer at Multiple Sclerosis Helping Hands' Donor Closet in Edmonds, which restores and delivers wheelchairs and other medical equipment to people who need them.

But the idea of recycling medical equipment took root and began to grow. Other people began contacting him about medical equipment that could be used by others.

Soon, his garage was so full of equipment that Brayer and his wife "couldn't get our cars in it."

Brayer, who has had multiple sclerosis since he was 19, formed a nonprofit group, Multiple Sclerosis Helping Hands.

The recycled medical equipment program is called the Donor Closet. The equipment and supplies are available to anyone with a medical need.

In November 1999, a business on Highway 99 gave the program room to grow, donating five storage units. By the time Donor Closet left a second, larger storage area unit in March 2005, it had expanded to 12 units.

Now it operates out of a building behind Petosa's Family Grocery in Edmonds. Its 4,000 square feet of space is packed with medical equipment.

The Donor Closet is run by an all-volunteer organization. Nine people help refurbish medical equipment, putting new batteries in wheelchairs and scooters, making repairs to equipment or assisting disabled people get the equipment they need.

Calls come from around the state, Brayer said. Because the equipment is donated, the organization offers refurbished equipment for a fraction of the retail cost.

Michael O'Leary / The Herald Bill Brayer, Craig Rubin and Bob Chisholm (left to right) refurbish donated equipment at Multiple Sclerosis Helping Hands Donor Closet.

"We've got an $18,000 wheelchair down here right now," Brayer said. Cleaned and rebuilt after being used for 18 months, he said the organization would sell it for a $400 donation.

Money collected from such donations is used to buy parts for the recycled medical equipment and for overhead costs.

Also, in September, United Way of Snohomish County gave the organization $5,000.

In the past six years, more than 18,000 pieces of medical equipment have been recycled, Brayer said.

"We have 11 hospitals that send people to us," Brayer said, as well as physical therapists, nursing homes and a hospice organization.

Brayer, 72, said he would like to see similar nonprofit organizations start up nationwide to help those in need.

Roger Oliver of Edmonds has volunteered at the Donor Closet for six years, often as the pickup and delivery man. Oliver, 73, is retired from the Boeing Co., where he worked as a construction electrician.

Help or donate The Donor Closet, a program of Multiple Sclerosis Helping Hands, recycles scooters, wheelchairs and other equipment to people with disabilities or other medical needs. The nonprofit group asks for a donation to help cover its costs. The Donor Closet, 409 Howell Way, Edmonds, is open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Call 425-712-1807 for information on obtaining medical equipment, donating used equipment or volunteering.

Oliver said the payback can be seen on the faces of people who receive the medical equipment.

"I helped deliver a wheelchair to a lady who couldn't walk two blocks," he said.

"To see her joy ... got to me right here in the heart," he said. "It gave her release and freedom."

Reporter Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486 or salyer@heraldnet.com.