Monday-morning grocery shoppers might notice a colorful trailer parked in the Lovingston Food Lion parking lot.
Cheery volunteers staffing the nearby tent were from Trinity Episcopal Church in Arrington and Charlottesville faith-based nonprofit All Blessings Flow (ABF), and the trailer stocked with medical supplies is part of a new community outreach program.
The mission of ABF is to collect, clean and refurbish used medical equipment and distribute it free of charge to people in Charlottesville and surrounding counties. As of Aug. 1, Trinity Episcopal Church in partnership with ABF has been bringing a mobile unit to Nelson to distribute and collect donations of gently used medical equipment.
Within five minutes of the Nelson County Times’ visit on Aug. 28, volunteers fulfilled a need, giving out a wheelchair after a man said his father needed one. It only took another five minutes — all recipients have to do is fill out a waiver acknowledging they’re accepting used equipment, and there’s no limit on how many times they visit the mobile unit or how many donations they accept.
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ABF volunteer Tina Boger said the same wheelchair would have cost $1,500 to $2,000 new.
Trinity Episcopal pastor Reverend Donna Steckline said ABF Executive Director Annie Dodd founded the nonprofit after her mother, Peggy Woodson, died. Woodson has used a special bed to accommodate her health condition, and after her death Dodd didn’t know what to do with it.
What happens to specialized, expensive medical equipment after people don’t need it anymore? It’s something people probably don’t think about until someone they love experiences a major health crisis. Steckline said she was in a similar situation as Dodd when her husband had a blood clot and he was issued a set of crutches.
According to its website, ABF distributed 20,235 items and reused and repurposed 165,790 pounds of material in 2021 alone.
Steckline said ABF’s headquarters in Charlottesville has four bays “completely filled from bottom to top” with intake, and the facility has machines that are like huge dishwashers to sanitize the equipment. Volunteers remove and replace pads from wheelchairs and do whatever is needed to return the equipment to like-new condition.
ABF volunteer Richard Harris said the Charlottesville location gets donations “all the time.”
The nonprofit also started sending mobile units to four other Charlottesville-adjacent counties in August: Fluvanna, Louisa, Madison and Orange, according to its website. ABF partners with churches, health care providers and other service organizations to coordinate with volunteers to staff the trailers.
The Nelson mobile unit is stocked with wheelchairs, walkers, crutches, canes, disposable products, and much more. But Trinity Church member Vic Monti said Nelson County residents can also call Steckline or ABF to make a specific request, to appear on that upcoming Monday’s trailer. Borger said she’ll also deliver: “If someone needs it, I’ll come out.”
Trinity Church members Sharon and Jeff Cole were volunteering Aug. 29 and Jeff Cole said it was a good opportunity to meet more Nelson County people.
He also noted much of the equipment ABF supplies would fall outside people’s health care deductibles, so they’d have to pay out of pocket for it.
Steckline described how earlier in the day a man driving by had stopped because his mother has Alzheimer’s disease and needs a new wheelchair. He asked how much it would cost. When Steckline said it’s free, he was “blown away,” pacing back and forth in disbelief.
“That happens time and time again,” Steckline added. She’d also seen the generosity of Nelson citizens that day: Many didn’t have a need but stopped because they were curious what was going on, then added money to the donation box once they found out.
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