Scooters and wheelchairs line the lawn across from the House
of Prayer and Christian Fellowship. Crumpled paper signs advertising
“Wheelchairs, $200 and under” hug nearby tree trunks, barely legible from the
road.
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ADDITIONAL CONTENT |
Click here to see the House of Prayer's wheelchair and scooter sale.
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Members of the House of Prayer on First
Avenue South could be selling baked goods or candy
bars door to door to raise money.
Instead, they are selling wheelchairs.
They sell them to raise money for members of the church to
go on field trips and for those who need help paying bills or buying food.
“It’s our livelihood,” said the Rev. Solomon Davis, 65,
pastor of the House of Prayer, a Pentecostal church in St.
Petersburg, Fla. “As long as
we’ve been in the church, if there’s someone who needs our help, we give it to
them.”
For about 12 years, Davis and his wife Florence
have purchased home appliances from private contractors. They then distribute
the goods to members of the church.
This year, they began buying wheelchairs, but finding little
need for them among congregators, the Davises
decided to sell them.
“This is really a blessing from the Lord that we were able
to be rewarded with these,” Florence
said.
Those who sell the wheelchairs set up shop a few days a
week, retrieving wheelchairs from the church hall where they are stored and
placing them along the sidewalk. Hours of operation at the wheelchair sale are
sporadic and depend on the schedule of the congregants, who may be found
sitting on the porch of the church hall on any given day, an oasis of spokes
and colors sprawled before them.
Occasionally, they cook fried fish dinners and sell doughnuts
while they wait for customers. As the sunset lingers, they lug the equipment
back into the church hall where dozens of other wheelchairs are stored.
Some days, the congregants may make $200. Other days, they
could go home empty-handed. But the small amount raised over time, they say, is
worth the labor.
* * *
Hoping to raise enough money to take her nieces to Disney
World, Jacqueline Kates waits eagerly for passersby to stop and make a
purchase. When a woman approaches, Kates greets her and drives down the
sidewalk on a red scooter to prove it works. Soon after, an elderly man rides
by on a bicycle and waves.
“Customers come and go. The price they’re getting the
wheelchairs for — it’s a great price,” Kates, 45, said, returning to her seat
in the shade.
Kates’ nieces, Wieysha Robinson, 8, Williena Robinson, 6,
and Karlisa Wilborn, 9, dance around the wheelchairs, talking about how they,
too, wish they could go for a ride. Kates, who is the girls’ primary caretaker,
is determined to keep them happy even though money is tight.
“Any money is good. Everything helps,” she said, recalling
the time she made $350 in two days. The prices range from $200 scooters to $25
manual wheelchairs. Brand new, manual wheelchairs retail starting at about
$275, while power wheelchairs cost upwards of $5,000, according to Rick Starr,
equipment manager at Caring and Sharing Center for Independent Living Inc., a
Florida company that loans out
wheelchairs.
Though Kates and other House of Prayer members sell the
chairs for discounted prices, the money they earn could mean the difference
between staying at home and going on this summer’s House of Prayer amusement
park trip to Disney World. Selling a couple of wheelchairs would cover the cost
for Kates and her nieces to go to Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex near Orlando
for the day. A few more and she might be able to pay for a day trip to Blizzard
Beach or Typhoon Lagoon water
parks.
Kates, who is raising her nieces on her own, didn’t always
have to worry about money. Until last year, she worked as a medical technician
at ConMed Linvatec making $13.60 per hour. She now relies on food stamps and disability
checks – repercussions of an April 2006 automobile accident that injured her so
badly she had to leave work.
Now, she is fighting not to have to use the four-wheeled
contraptions she sells.
“Even when I’m in pain I try to keep moving. All those
chairs you see out there—my parents had to use the same equipment,” Kates said.
“I know the feeling and that’s why I’m trying to move as much as possible.”
Engaging in a church initiative to raise money has helped
provide her with an alternative to staying inside and feeling sorry for
herself. Since the accident, she has
found greater meaning in the House of Prayer services.
“It has actually turned me toward the Lord,” she said. “I
give Him a lot of thanks. He could have just let me die but He lifted me up.”
Selling wheelchairs, she noted, is much like serving the
Lord. When customers express an interest in a wheelchair but say they cannot
afford to purchase one, Kates offers them a discount.
“We just go by what the Bible says: It’s better to give than
receive. … Just like He blessed us with this here,” she said, pointing to the
wheelchairs, “He’ll bless us with more.”
*
* *
Kates is a bargain hunter herself. When she’s not selling
wheelchairs, she scours yard sales for reduced-price treasures. “I fill my
whole house with yard sale stuff. I bought me a fish tank for $10,” she said.
“I bought a bedroom set for $100.”
Though Kates and her nieces do not live a life of luxury,
they have what they need—food, shelter and transportation. “We may not have
diamonds or gems or jewelry, but we have Jesus and He has everything,” she
said.
There are some things Kates wishes she could do if she had
more money, such as paying for her nieces to go to summer camp.
“We have a taste bud for things that aren’t there but we
have things to replace those taste buds,” she said.
Helping to sell wheelchairs has served as a replacement for
camp, as it gives the children a chance to play outside and learn
entrepreneurial skills, Kates said.
Wild-eyed and talkative, her nieces greet passersby at the
wheelchair sale with a smile and request to race them down the sidewalk. They
are playful, the colorful beads in their hair jumping up and down as they run.
Karlisa pretends she is a teacher, grasping onto a colorful handout about
emperor penguins as she waits for customers to approach. Williena, meanwhile,
raises her hands to the heavens and sings, “My God is bright … there’s nothing
my God can’t do.”
Together, they talk about their trip to Disney World. Riding
roller coasters, they agree, is much more fun than riding wheelchairs.
