Wheelchair charge too high for seniors

I’d like to share a recent experience my friend and I had at the Evergreen State Fair. On Friday (which happened to be Senior Citizen Day) I invited a dear friend to the fair for an outing. She is quite confined and uses a walker or wheelchair. I picked her up at her home at 11 a.m. and she used her walker to get to the car.

When we arrived at the fair, the ladies at the gate were very kind and offered her a chair, and she sat until I walked to the center of the fair grounds to purchase a wheelchair. Asking the lady in charge for a wheelchair (which I had paid $5 for in years past) I was told that the fee was now $12. I said we probably would use it for about three hours. The price was the same – $12. I am 86 years-old and she will be 90 in October. I asked the woman if she would take a check and her answer was no. I had already paid $5 for parking and did not feel I could spend a large sum of money, so I walked back to the gate where I left my friend. After a short discussion, we left the fair, went for a lovely lunch and then home.

We both have worked many years for the fair – I sold tickets at the main gate and she worked many years – several as a volunteer.

We are sorry about this incident and hope perhaps the fair would consider the people who need these wheelchairs are not riding them for fun, but for necessity, and consider reducing the price from $12 to $5.

If these things are not considered, perhaps people will attend other fairs rather than our beautiful one in Monroe.

Monroe

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