Major U.S. airlines allow one person to bring one wheelchair free of charge. Patrick McEvoy, the owner of Bellingham’s new pub Elizabeth Station, plans to bring 20 volunteers and 20 wheelchairs with him on a trip to Mexico City in September. McEvoy had always wanted to bring a group of volunteers to Mexico City but it wasn’t until the opening of Elizabeth Station in March 2012 that he saw this dream becoming a reality. Elizabeth Station attracts a large and diverse group of Bellingham locals. He sees himself bringing 20 volunteers but welcomes more.
“I’ve never really had an outlet to invite a lot of people,” said McEvoy, “I’m using my business to promote it.”
He explained that the customers and employees at Elizabeth Station trust him and have faith that he can take care of them on the trip to Mexico.
“I’m having a poster made up and going to leave it around town,” said McEvoy, “all my employees are excited about going.”
McEvoy is inspired by Richard St. Denis, who is the founder of a nonprofit organization called World Access Project. St. Denis was a finalist for the CNN Heroes 2011. McEvoy roomed with St. Denis when he moved from Seattle to Mexico in 2002. St. Denis’ organization is based three hours away from Mexico City. The organization gathers and fixes wheelchairs.
“If I show up with chairs he (St. Denis) will be thrilled,” said McEvoy.
The wheelchairs go to many people that have been immobile for years. Before St. Denis started the project, he was invited by his friend to donate a wheelchair in Mexico. St. Denis gave the wheelchair to Leticia, a 17-year-old girl who was born with polio. She had never had a wheelchair in her life and her family had to carry her everywhere.
“Her huge smile on her face, seeing her move around made me really want to start bringing wheelchairs down to Mexico,” said St. Denis.
He started working for another organization that donated wheelchairs all around the world. Eventually, he thought it would be more efficient to focus on giving away wheelchairs to one country rather than multiple countries.
“At one point it hit me that if we just give away wheelchairs in many countries for two weeks we would have to follow up,” said St. Denis.
World Access Project donates to people around it’s headquarters but reaches other areas in Mexico too. McEvoy and his group of volunteers will travel to the World Access Project headquarters and St. Denis will then distribute the wheelchairs to people who need them.
“A good wheelchair in the U.S. can cost more than $2,000 and $2,000 could be a years’ salary in this country for someone,” said St. Denis.
Elizabeth Station employee Adrian Duckett is one of the employees who is excited about going with McEvoy. Duckett believes that this is a unique project because it goes beyond the local community. He thinks that this is a great opportunity go to a place in Mexico City that not many people outside of the Mexico have been to. The headquarters of the World Access Project is in a rural village northwest of Mexico City and is home to indigenous Mazahua Indians. He has fundraising ideas that he thinks will get more employees and community members involved.
“I think that this is a cool opportunity to see a part of the world that people haven’t necessarily seen and do some good work for the community there at the same time,” said Duckett.
McEvoy and two of his employees ran convenience stores in Whatcom County before they started Elizabeth Station. By working at the convenience stores, they established relationships with beer and grocery distributers. At this time he thought that Bellingham had a large amount of locally brewed beer but no location to buy all of it. Besides being a store that sells and serves alcoholic drinks, he wanted families and children to be able to enjoy the shop. He wanted a store that his 1 year-old and 3-year-old children could go to. The atmosphere of Elizabeth Station combines all these factors into one grocery store and pub.
Although McEvoy says Elizabeth Station is not political or affiliated with any political organization, the shop will support most of it’s employees and customers interests. McEvoy says that they will leave on Sept. 3 to Sept. 7. From Sept. 5 to Sept. 7 the group will go to Cerveza Mexico, a beer convention at Mexico City’s World Trade Center.
For more information about the trip contact Patrick McEvoy at patrick@elizabethstationpress.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment