A High Country Harley-Davidson Silent Auction For A Very Special Cause: Computers For Paralyzed Veterans

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) October 26, 2010 -- On Saturday, November 13 2010, High Country Harley-Davidson is sponsoring a fashion show and silent auction.

The silent auction will benefit a fund that will purchase an adapted computer for the Denver VA Nursing Home Unit. That unit is a 60 bed facility offering: long term nursing care, rehabilitation following surgeries, hospice care, and respite care to allow families who are primary care givers to have a brief break from those responsibilities. In the population of patients are veterans of WWII, the Korean conflict, and the Viet Nam war. These and all veterans in this unit receive high quality medical care and recreational opportunities.

Phil Ricketts, Jack Vining and Marty Hahn have all been volunteers in the nursing home. Jack and Marty continue to volunteer there, Jack in his third year of volunteering and Marty in his fourth.

They are also Harley riders, members of the High Country H.O.G. (Harley Owners Group) chapter, and have integrated Harley’s into the nursing home recreational program in an annual event at the home. In the first year of the event, in 2008, they took about 30 Harley’s and their riders to the nursing home, handed out event T-shirts to all the residents and had great conversations with the residents. Last year, they took bikes with sidecars to the Nursing Home and took residents on short rides in the blocks around the hospital

This year, on July 3rd 2010, after detailed discussions with the risk management and medical personnel of the VA, they “brought the circus to town”. Colorado Senate President Brandon Shaffer was the guest of honor. With escort Humvees provided by the Colorado National Guard and five motor officers from the Denver Police Department, they took nine residents on 45 minute ride to City Park in Denver. You can imagine the smiles on the faces of residents as they “blew through” traffic lights at the intersections between the hospital and City Park. It was quite an event. Among the riders were two WWII veterans, one of whom had spent 18 months in a POW camp after his B-24 had been shot down over Germany. Other riders with more serious health issues took shorter rides around several blocks near the hospital.

In addition to the sidecar rigs, they took about 30 regular motorcycles to the VA. Each of them who made that run gave a donation of $50.00. That money, about $1400.00 in total, was given to the Nursing Home Unit and earmarked for the purchase of an adaptive computer produced by a Denver company called It’s Never too Late or in2l. (please check out the system at in2l.com). That system would allow residents of all abilities to access the internet, contact members of their wartime unit, or just play their favorite music.

In a demonstration of the capability of the machine in the nursing home a few months ago, high functioning residents were able to log on and the use the machine easily to access numerous applications. The most poignant and stunning use of the machine, however, was made by a Viet Nam era Air Force Captain, Dan. Dan had a major stroke a number of years ago and now has almost no use of his right side and has little speech. Marty has known Dan for over three years now and has never really known much about his cognitive abilities because of his speech deficit. They wanted to see what Dan could do with the computer.

Dan moved his wheel chair in front of the computer and was shown how to touch icons on the screen to make things happen. Within a few minutes, Dan moved through four screens to access music he liked from the 1960’s and sat smiling as the music played. There was not a dry eye among those watching the demonstration.

That demonstration cemented their resolve - they are determined to raise $5,000 for an adapted computer. They have raised $1400 already, have received a grant of $2000 from the Southeast Asia U.S. Army Security Agency Association and now they will complete the fund raising, needing $1600 with a silent auction on November 13 at High Country Harley-Davidson. The computer is good but they plan to augment the effectiveness of the machine by enlisting volunteers from their H.O.G. ranks to visit the nursing home on a regular basis and work with residents in using the machine.

For more information, people can send an email to ybe@highcountryharley.com.

They can also visit http://www.highcountryharley.com.

High Country Harley-Davidson is located at 3761 Monarch Street, Frederick, CO 80516.

Media Contact

Mark Walton, YourBusinessEdge
303.532.4408 x801
info@yourbusinessedge.biz

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