The Impact of Helping Others

I was working at Impact NW’s Senior Resource Center’s information and assistance desk and received a call one morning from a Portland Police Officer who had gotten our number from the Multnomah County Helpline. He wasn’t sure if we could help him or not, but he had an urgent request–he needed a wheelchair for a man who had been robbed the night before. The man was homeless and disabled, and his wheelchair and backpack contained all of his earthly possessions. To complicate matters, he had just one eye and one leg; without a wheelchair this man not only had nowhere to go, but literally, no way to get there.

After listening to this, I told the officer that I wasn’t sure that we had a wheelchair but I knew that we had some donated items in a downstairs storage closet. I assured the officer that I would do my best and anxiously made my way downstairs to see what I could find. I can remember clearly the relief I felt upon opening the door to our storage room to find, folded up in the corner, a slightly outdated but functional wheelchair.

The officer arrived within fifteen minutes. As he gathered up the chair, he expressed his gratitude for Impact NW’s ability to help fix an otherwise unbearably sad and difficult situation.

As I left work that day, something caught my eye at an intersection just a few blocks away. It was the man, with one eye and one leg, sitting in the same brown wheelchair that had left the storage room earlier that morning. The poignancy of that moment struck me – this is why we do what we do. We may not always remember, in the rush of our busiest days and as we reach out to the many hands that are extended for increasingly dwindling resources, that there is a very real person on  the other end of the line – one who may be hurting, confused, scared and helpless. This man was a reminder for me, in a very tangible way, and this is why I come to work each day.