provided to the Santiva Chronicle
John Danner marked his 60th birthday in 2013 by cycling from Fort Lauderdale to Key West, Fla. The Sanibel Congregational UCC and the Rotary Club of Sanibel-Captiva co-sponsored the solo ride.
That first Wheels for Wheels ride raised about $22,000 to purchase wheelchairs for people in Trinidad. Subsequently, the rides have evolved into the Howard S Danner, Jr. Wheels for Wheels Cycling Challenge, with many participants from the Rotary Club of Sanibel-Captiva.
Since the second ride, fellow San-Cap Rotary members Roger Grogman and John Henshaw have co-chaired the event with Danner and have been joined on the committee this year by Maria Espinoza and Tom Green.
On average, over $25,000 has been raised each year, totaling over $150,000 since the event’s inception. Working with Rotary Clubs abroad and the Wheelchair Foundation, wheelchairs to those in need have gone to Guatemala, Bermuda, Barbados, Peru, and most recently Belize.
Members of the Sanibel-Captiva Rotary Club have often accompanied the wheelchairs and helped to distribute them. Six members of the Sanibel-Captiva Rotary Club – Linda Arnold, John Danner, Barbara Ellis, Roxanne and Bob Stern, and Michael Young – went to Belize. Three members of the North Naples club – Charlotte Nal, Roger Dick, and Joe Badway – joined them.
Locally, following the devastation wrought by Hurricane Ian, the club provided wheelchairs to FISH, the Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum, and the Sanibel Community House to replace those lost in the storm. Hurricane Ian washed their wheelchairs out to sea in the surge.
The 6th annual ride was on April 5, with a celebration at the Sanibel Community House, where Rotary District 6960 and Wheelchair Foundation representatives Gary Dworkin and Jim Fabry presented the club with a special award recognizing the more than 1,400 wheelchairs the club has provided over the years.
The Wheelchair Foundation is a nonprofit organization leading an international effort to create awareness of the needs and abilities of people with physical disabilities, to promote the joy of giving, to create global friendship, and to deliver a wheelchair to every child, teen, and adult in the world who needs one, but cannot afford one.
For those people, the Sanibel Captiva Rotary Club and Wheelchair Foundation deliver hope, mobility, and independence to many.
Howard Danner, the ride’s namesake, was confined to a wheelchair for the last 17 years of his life and was the inspiration for John’s first ride.
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