St. Louis HELP’s Benevolent Mission – A Magnet for Volunteers Dale and Linda Schuk

Photo: Dale Schuk (far right) with St. Louis HELP volunteers Caroline Meyers and her son; volunteer Travis Englund; and two unidentified donors and during the October 8 equipment donation drive in Florissant.

Dale and Linda Schuk of Florissant are dedicated volunteers with the nonprofit St. Louis Health Equipment Lending Program (St. Louis HELP) for two simple reasons.

“St. Louis HELP is a devoted group of friendly people with a passion for what they do to help the community,” says Dale, who with his wife Linda has volunteered with St. Louis HELP since 2013.

“It is worthwhile for us to volunteer with an organization that gives back such a high percentage of value to the local community,” he says.

St. Louis HELP loans home medical equipment for free to any person who needs it. The organization collects about 11,000 items of donated home health equipment annually in twice-a-year equipment drives and via donations of equipment that people bring to its warehouse during the year.

All donated equipment is cleaned, refreshed and sanitized at St. Louis HELP’s warehouse in Olivette and made available for free loans. What can’t be used is recycled. Donors receive a tax deduction.

Dales served as a site captain for the volunteers who worked at the equipment drop-off location in Florissant during St. Louis HELP’s equipment drive on Saturday, October 8.

That day, the Florissant volunteers accepted 98 home health items from donors of equipment, all of which the volunteers loaded into a one-ton truck for delivery to St. Louis HELP’s warehouse.

Thirteen additional drop-off locations in metro St. Louis were involved in that equipment drive, all staffed by St. Louis HELP volunteers.

The warehouse, located at 9709 Dielman Rock Island Drive, is full of manual and power wheelchairs, electric hospital beds, shower chairs, canes, crutches, walkers, grab bars, elevated toilet seats, portable commodes, lift chairs, seating cushions, back supports, folding ramps and other devices for free loans.

If you need a free loan of home health equipment, the lending warehouse is open Wednesdays and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Call (314) 567-4700 to ask if the equipment you want is available.

St. Louis HELP also accepts financial donations – every dollar received is turned into $10.67 of benefit to the community via the free loan program.

“The community benefit is a result of St. Louis HELP’s efficient operations model, amazing volunteers and staff, and dedication to stewardship of the organization’s mission,” says Dale. “It is a very worthwhile organization.”

Within the last year St. Louis HELP has opened a new pediatric space for young children who need home health equipment and also opened a Women’s Center at the warehouse.

The pediatric space provides more privacy for kids and their caregivers to try different items, such as wheelchairs and pediatric standers, before borrowing them. The Women’s Center, staffed by a female volunteer, offers free loans of wigs, bras and prosthetic breasts for women who are victims of breast cancer. It helps women who have suffered from related treatments or surgery keep their dignity and self-esteem with free loans of crucial items.

Dale recently retired as a software engineer at Boeing, where he worked for more than 38 years. In 1973, his wife Linda became disabled after a debilitating car accident and, today, often uses a walker or wheelchair. The situation limits Linda’s mobility, yet she volunteers with St. Louis HELP as often as possible.

Dale and Linda have two, grown daughters, Stephanie and Rebecca, who in summer sometimes volunteer to help their parents tend their two gardens full of better boy and big boy tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, sweet banana peppers, hot chili peppers, Publano peppers and jalapeño peppers.

The Schuks like to share their home-grown vegetables with other volunteers at St. Louis HELP.

In 2015 St. Louis HELP loaned 5,570 home health equipment items, diverting about 150 tons of equipment from solid waste landfills.

The organization recently expanded its 5,000 square foot warehouse in Olivette by 2,000 square feet to accommodate increasing requests from people and families in metro St. Louis for free loans of revitalized home health equipment.

For more details about borrowing or donating home health equipment or volunteering with St. Louis HELP, please call 314 567 4700 or see the website http://www.stlhelp.org. Thank you.

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