Free to move

PHOTO: JOHN MERRILL ’77/MERRILLIMAGES.COM

Published Jan. 21, 2016

More than 500 people in Peru are newly mobile, thanks to members of the Class of 1977 who distributed wheelchairs in August to seven villages and cities for a 35th-reunion class-service project. Pictured, left to right, are Daniel Finch, Christina Finch (children of Maturin Finch ’77), and Ronald Perkowski ’77 with a recipient. Bill Farrell ’77 led the effort, and David Behring ’77, president of the Wheelchair Foundation, helped coordinate the logistics. Railroad entrepreneur Henry Posner III ’77 arranged for the transportation of 30 classmates and family members and the wheelchairs in one of his company’s trains — from sea level to high in the Andes. The volunteers assembled the chairs and helped the recipients learn to use them. Farrell had seen mothers and grandmothers carrying children bigger than themselves because they had no wheelchairs. A wheelchair, he said, “changes more than one person’s life.”

Published in Oct. 10, 2012, Issue

1 Response

Anonymous

8 Years Ago

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Alumni posted enthusiastic comments at PAW Online with the Oct. 10 story about members of the Class of 1977 who distributed wheelchairs to more than 500 people in Peru as a 35th-reunion class-service project.

“Mil gracias a ’77,” wrote GREG PLIMPTON ’73, a Peace Corps volunteer in a small Peruvian town that received seven wheelchairs. One of the new users “cried as she thanked me for her gift, as did I,” Plimpton said.

“The trip was an amazing bonding experience for my husband, our daughter, and me,” commented COLLEEN KELLY ’77 s’77. “It was wonderful to give back in honor of our 35th.”

“What a great way to give back and honor Princeton — and make Reunions even more meaningful!” wrote TOM LEYDEN ’77. Added DAVID BEHRING ’77: “I hope that every Princeton class will try to do some form of community service in honor of their major reunions.”