Volunteer Lends a Hand by Repairing Wheelchairs

Freeman Arnold has always been willing to help out. When an auto accident left a family friend a quadriplegic, Arnold helped dress him, feed him and get him in and out of a wheelchair.

Now he is doing his friend another favor: repairing wheelchairs for the disabled.

Once every month, Arnold sets up shop in a parking lot at 1600 Alameda St. in Compton and repairs wheelchairs for free. He asks only that people supply needed parts. He’ll do the rest. “I’ll help anybody if they’re willing to help themselves,” said Arnold, 65, who ran a floor-covering business before retiring.

Arnold is a volunteer with Personal Care Technology, a nonprofit organization founded three years ago by Arnold’s quadriplegic friend, Ernest T. Hamilton, to provide the disabled with home care and wheelchair repair.

“I noticed the guys (in rehabilitation) having a lot of trouble retaining people in the home to take care of them, and getting their wheelchairs repaired, “ Hamilton said.

Hamilton suffered a spinal cord injury in a car accident about 15 years ago, shortly after he left the U.S. Air Force. For years, Arnold drove Hamilton to the Veteran’s Administration Hospital two and three times a week.

After Arnold retired, he took his friend’s suggestion that he become a volunteer for Personal Care and be trained to repair wheelchairs. Arnold took a course at the Veteran’s Administration hospital in Long Beach, three days a week, four hours a day, for 3 1/2 months.

“If he can help you, he will, and he won’t ask for money,” Hamilton said. “It makes him feel good just to help.”

Arnold, who lives on a pension but has minimal expenses, echoed his friend’s observation. “I don’t need the money,” Arnold said. “I don’t have a car note, or a house note. My rent is only $350 a month. Some days I don’t have anything to do. This gives me something to do.”

In the future, Arnold said, he hopes to train others to repair wheelchairs, then turn his attention to learning how to write grant proposals for the organization, which would use the money to expand.