Kori SavoieCal Poly’s student chapter of the Wheelchair Foundation hopes to raise at least $90,000 at a movie night fundraiser tonight at the Fremont Theatre. The foundation, which will be selling $5 tickets to a showing of “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” will generate money to help send wheelchairs and provide cataract surgeries for needy residents of Oaxaca, Mexico.
“The whole mission is to give the gift of mobility and by doing that, you’re giving someone a chance to get back into society and live their life again because they won’t be dependent on their family and friends anymore,” said business junior Helya Naghibi, project manager for the foundation. “We forget when we live in San Luis Obispo how easy it is to take everything for granted so I want to be able to give the gift that I have to somebody else.”
The foundation, which began eight years ago, is a non-profit that keeps an eye on different needy regions of the world.
Every year, the Cal Poly chapter chooses a location and spends all year raising money for it. If students who are able to, they’d travel the area during the summer to hand-deliver the wheelchairs.
Journalism senior Tyler Brewer works in media relations for the foundation for his senior project. He said going to Oaxaca and seeing the faces of the people in need would be an amazing hands-on adventure.
“It just looks like a phenomenal experience just to be able to give a person who can’t walk or can’t get around on a daily basis a vehicle to get around,” he said. “When I was looking for a senior project, I was looking for something with a little sustenance and instead of writing a boring old paper, I was super ecstatic at the idea of actually helping people. I’d never really been in a cause like this where you solely dedicate yourself to a cause so for me it was just exciting to have a chance to give to people in need.”
Last year the foundation raised $90,000 and brought 100 wheelchairs to Malawi and 260 to Peru. They hope to reach the $150,000 mark by the end of this year, enough to send two containers full of wheelchairs along with the cataract surgeries.
Their next fundraiser will be an art show on Nov. 6 and will feature photographs from last year’s visit to Peru.
Tonightís event is expected to bring between 300 and 400 people, according to Brewer. It starts at 7:30 and those who come in a Halloween costume will automatically be entered in a raffle to win an iPod.