On a Roll

Mobility gives something that most people take for granted: the ability to live life with dignity and independence. In an ideal world, that's a gift no one should go without.

That's the concept, and the goal, at Alternatives in Motion, which calls itself “an alternative to traditional and often limiting methods for people with disabilities to obtain mobility.”

Located in Grand Rapids, Mich., the non-profit organization's mission is to provide wheelchairs to people who can't afford them and who don't qualify for any other financial assistance. Alternatives in Motion presents these individuals with new, custom wheelchairs bought with dollars earned through various fund-raising efforts and private donations.

The organization is the brainchild of motivational speaker Johnnie Tuitel, who has cerebral palsy, and Grand Rapids businessman and philanthropist George Ranville. Ten years ago, Tuitel underwent an operation to relieve the spasticity in his muscles. At the time, he was the oldest person in the country to undergo the procedure due to the extensive rehab it requires, but “my goal was to be able to clean myself,” Tuitel says.

While he recuperated, Tuitel learned his insurance company had denied his request for a new wheelchair, “which I needed because my new body needed a new chair.” He already had a chair, his insurance company told him, and it was too soon for a replacement. Though Tuitel had the resources to pay for a new wheelchair himself, as he lay in the hospital a thought kept haunting him: What do other people in this situation, who don't have the resources to get their needed equipment, do?

To help solve the problem, Tuitel and Ranville founded Alternatives in Motion in 1995. Working with local foundations for people with disabilities, the team estimated that there were roughly 150,000 wheelchair-users in the state of Michigan, though they had no way of finding out how many people were unable to get the mobility equipment they needed.

“We set a goal for the first year of placing 15 chairs, no more, no less,” recalls Tuitel. The organization easily met that first-year goal in 1996.

In 1997, Tuitel and Ranville doubled the number, and in 2000 they placed 108 wheelchairs — donating a total of more than 285 wheelchairs in five years.

Alternatives in Motion was on a roll.

THE PEOPLE

People who need wheelchairs can't just come to Alternatives in Motion with an old chair and leave with a new one, however. There is a specific — and sometimes long — process involved.