Lesson 4 We Are Global Villagers
Meet an Engineer with a Heart of Gold
Leading Free Wheelchair ____, Dr. Don Schoendorfer has given away wheelchairs to those in need around the world.
We met him last month, and he told us ____ his life.
Q. At the peak of your career, you started to look for ways to help others.
Why did you decide to focus on ____?
When I visited Morocco in 1979, I was shocked to see a woman who was ____ across a road.
She had lost the use of her legs in an ____.
____ was paying any attention to her.
This scene often came back to me, and one day the idea of ____ away wheelchairs came to mind.
I ____ to look seriously into people who need wheelchairs, and I came to learn the harsh reality.
About 100 million people in the world need a wheelchair, but they can’t afford ____ because wheelchairs are very expensive.
Q. How did you solve the problem?
I wanted to ____ a wheelchair that would be light and strong.
But more importantly, it had to be cheap and be made from easily ____ parts.
____ of wheels made for wheelchairs, I settled on bicycle wheels.
For the seat, I chose a plastic ____ chair.
It was ____ held together by a simple steel frame I designed myself.
My friends thought I ____ gone off the deep end.
My wife, who was supportive at first, soon ____ tired of my messing up our garage.
But I ____ going and finally made a better wheelchair.
It ____ be built and delivered anywhere in the world for less than $80.
Q. Do you have any unforgettable stories about your wheelchair?
Sure. I built the first ____ hundred wheelchairs by hand.
One of them was given to a ____ girl in India.
She had lived her ____ life in a small room.
____ she got her wheelchair, she went out by herself.
Finding that she could get from one place to another under her own power, she ____ into tears.
What has ____ Wheelchair Mission done so far?
Working with other like-minded groups, we have ____ wheelchairs in over 90 countries for almost 20 years.
At ____ in 2017, the one-millionth wheelchair was delivered.
Each one represents a ____ changed.
Someone can now go to ____ or to work.
Q. Please tell our readers a little about your future plans.
We’re ____ to deliver our next million wheelchairs by 2025.
It’s ____ to take half the time it took to give out the first million.
We’ll never slow ____.
Dr. Don Schoendorfer is a biomedical ____ who lives in Santa Ana, California.
He has achieved a great deal in the ____ of biomedical technology.
In 2001, he founded Free Wheelchair Mission, a non-profit organization, and started to ____ away wheelchairs to people in need.
He has received several awards for the work that Free ____ Mission has done around the world.