Articles

Morocco Peace Wheels Project

After more than two years of extensive e orts, Whirlwind has managed to pull together the key partners for a major wheelchair project in Morocco. The project would support a social enterprise, called Peace Wheels that includes local wheelchair manufacture and assembly of imported RoughRiders® in conjunction with efforts to improve access to wheelchairs throughout…

Emergency Alert: Swedish Government Cutting Personal Assistance Services

Emergency Alert: Swedish Government Cutting Personal Support and Service for People with Disabilities There is an emergency alert situation emerging in Sweden. The Swedish Government is cutting personal and support services for people with disabilities. They have launched an investigation of the LSS, (The Swedish Act concerning Support and Service for persons with certain functional…

RoughRider User Tours the Streets of Paris and London

“My wheelchair worked marvelously in London and Paris! Thank you so much!” – Jordan Ayers. This past year, on Brent Ayers family’s trip to London and Paris they were able to see and do more with the use of their RoughRider. Brent’s daughter, Jordan, typically rides a power chair. Knowing they would need a manual chair,…

Ugandan Priest Rides RoughRider Back to his Duties

Father Thomas outside a classroom at Sacred Heart Seminary in Mubende, Uganda. For nearly 30 years, Whirlwind has been dedicated to improving the lives of people with disabilities in the developing world. We recently received an update from Father Thomas Gabula, a Catholic Priest in Uganda, and avid user of the RoughRider. In October 2009, barely…

WALTER Wins RESNA’s Student Design Competition

Christian Bremer and Erik Ohlson, Master’s students in Industrial Design Engineering at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg Sweden, spent four weeks last fall in Whirlwind’s workshop at San Francisco State University with our technical team. As part of their Master’s thesis, Christian and Erik developed Walter – a rigid frame wheelchair for developing countries…

Push to the Finish and Whirlwind help Joe to Go, Go, Go…

According to Joe Briskey’s mom, “Joe loves to go, go, go, constantly begging to go bowling, or fishing, or out to dinner.” With the help of Push to the Finish and Riverton High School’s fundraising efforts, Joe and four others received new wheels that allowed them go, go, go in the Strawberry Days 5K. Each…

Whirlwind Wheelchair Hosts ISO Wheelchair Working Group Meetings

Double Drum Test of an early RoughRider Whirlwind is hosting the International Organization for Standards – ISO – (wheelchairs) Working Group Meetings from June 3 throug June 7, 2013 at San Francisco State University. The Working Groups comprise representatives of industry and consumer groups who work to develop and design manufacturing standards for manual and power…

Elementary Students Raise over $5,000 for Whirlwind in Wheels of Hope Activity

Fourth grade students selling sundaes to raise funds for their Wheels of Hope project for Whirlwind Wheelchair Fourth grade students selling sundaes to raise funds for their Wheels of Hope project for Whirlwind Wheelchair. In fall 2012, 100 fourth grade students from Indian Ridge Elementary School in the Cherry Creek school district of metro Denver, Colorado…

Will Sri Lestari Reach TEDx Ubud on Her Modified Motorbike?

Last week we shared a photo of Sri Lestari, a social worker who is employed by a Whirlwind partner, UCP Wheels for Humanity, in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. We found out after our post that she has been asked to speak at the TEDx Ubud conference on June 1st. Sri is hoping to make her trip to…

Whirlwind Shifts into High Gear with International Quality Standards

With the 2010 Whirlwind RoughRider® on track to reach more than 20,000 riders next year, the process for ensuring that each chair is of the highest quality becomes an even greater challenge. Unlike Whirlwind’s first 25 years, it is no longer cost-competitive for one person to hand-make every RoughRider from start to finish. Now, as…