SEQUIM — Rosalie DiMaggio is ramping up efforts to help bring medical equipment to people in need in Guatemala.
Two years ago, she and other Dungeness Community Church volunteers sent hundreds of wheelchairs, walkers, canes, crutches and walking sticks and many boxes of wheelchair parts to nonprofit agency Bethel Ministries to help people with various mobility challenges.
Volunteers sent the supplies in a tractor-trailer on Sept. 20, 2022, and it arrived on Dec. 24, 2022.
Now DiMaggio, a retired catering chef, looks to replicate the team’s success.
She’s set a second goal to send at least 150 wheelchairs and other pieces of medical equipment by year’s end.
“I used to love going on short-term mission trips and I’m older now, so traveling is a little harder, but I can do this,” she said.
“I can make calls. I can organize.”
So far, DiMaggio has filled one donated unit at All-Safe Mini Storage with wheelchairs, and she looks to receive at least 40 more wheelchairs to fill a second unit before sending them all to Guatemala.
She’ll also need at least $8,200 for shipping.
To help with expenses, Dungeness Community Church, 45 Eberle Lane, will host a benefit dinner at 5 p.m. Friday.
The cost is $15 with music entertainment, auction items and donated art for sale, such as pottery, paintings, jewelry, stained glass and more, with proceeds helping with shipping.
To RSVP, call the church at 360-683-7333.
Giving back
DiMaggio felt the need to do another large donation last December and started seeking donations in January with a new strategy: go to care facilities with a flyer on what’s needed.
She said some business staff members have been surprised, saying to her, “You’ll take our used stuff?”
“They’re so grateful,” she said. “They’d have to take it to the dump, so it’s a win-win.”
DiMaggio said Bethel Ministries International hires Guatemalans to custom fit chairs for each person and the equipment is accepted in any condition because staffers are trained to make multiple types of repairs.
Each year, the nonprofit distributes about 1,300 repaired wheelchairs through monthly distribution events, according to its website.
DiMaggio said in a prior interview that Dungeness Community Church initially intended to go on a mission trip in October 2020 to Guatemala, but it was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic; however, Bethel officials asked for wheelchairs and other medical equipment instead.
She and other volunteers gathered the supplies and raised about $13,000 for shipping to Mission Mobility in Kentucky, which handles the logistics of getting the supplies to Guatemala.
Due to the pandemic impacting the supply chain, DiMaggio said there were 20-plus delays over an 18-month period waiting for a tractor-trailer.
Once volunteers receive another 40 wheelchairs, DiMaggio feels a shipping container will be more readily available this time with an anticipated ship date by the end of this year or at the beginning of 2025.
Those who have a donation can call Dungeness Community Church at 360-683-7333.
For more information on Bethel Ministries International, visit bethelministriesinternational.com.
For more on Mission Mobility, visit missionmobility.org.
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Matthew Nash is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. Reach him at matthew.nash@sequimgazette.com.
