Video: Senate candidate Dan Gelber does a Tampa wheelchair workday
March 9, 2009 at 1:30 pm by Wayne GarciaSouth Florida legislator Dan Gelber was in Tampa this weekend for one of his campaign workdays as he travels the state to raise his name recognition. He was a very progressive and aggressive Democratic leader in the Florida House, helping engineer the gains the party made in the 2006 elections.
Gelber writes on his blog:
P.E.T. stands for personal energy transportation. PET, located in Tampa (1109 E. Osborne Ave), is a workshop where volunteers build all-terrain wheelchairs for people in need in developing nations. Many of the recipients are children or victims of land mine explosions. The recipients live across the globe and are people who couldn’t afford the cost of a wheelchair because of extreme poverty. Because traditional wheel chairs are too expensive and don’t work so well in regions without paved roads and transportation infrastructure, PET creates wheelchairs that are low cost and designed for off-terrain use, replete with space for water or goods, and long and durable life expectancy.
PET was created by missionaries who saw the great despair of children and adults imprisoned by their disability first hand. So they designed these devices and created workshops around the country to assemble them. The Tampa PET is organized by Jeff whose passion, commitment and faith are the foundation of the Tampa effort. He has been on missions all over the world and has helped other countries like Sierra Leone in Africa create their own PET workshops.
