Korean War vets donate all-terrain chair to rehab hospital

After much consideration, the Wounded Warrior Fund Committee of the Bill Carr Chapter #1, Sussex County, of Korean War Veterans of America donated a new TracFab wheelchair to the Spaulding Rehabilitation Network in eastern Massachusetts, for veterans with catastrophic injuries. The Spaulding Rehab Network is the official teaching partner of the Harvard Medical School Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.

This TracFab unit is a gasoline- and battery-powered chair that will enable seriously injured vets to have great mobility to handle sandy beaches and all terrains for hunting, fishing, camping and other daily activities. A TracFab chair will take the vet to many places that are impossible to reach with a standard mobility unit. The cost of the unit was more than $16,000.

The chair was dedicated and recognized as the chapter's donation during a weekend in June at the veteran sport and spirit weekend at Camp Wingate Kirkland in Yarmouthport, Mass., on Cape Cod. The permanent home of the chair during the winter months will be the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston which is part of the Massachusetts General Hospital Partners HealthCare system.

John Weidenhof, chairman of the chapter’s Wounded Warrior Fund Committee, said, “We are very fortunate to make a donation of this type to a nationally recognized organization like Spaulding to improve the quality of life for our disabled veterans.”

For more information for any Korean War or defense veteran interested in the KWVA, call Jack McGinley at 302-945-0698.