Personal Energy Transportation goes worldwide
By The Rev. John Shaffer | Photo by Barbara Dadd Shaffer
What is a PET? It is a Personal Energy Transportation hand bike, provided for persons in developing countries who have lost the use of their legs due to disease, landmines, accidents, birth defects, or animal bites. This project is now a Conference Advance Special (#339).
The Rev. John Shaffer and wife, Barbara Dadd Shaffer, with several friends recently attended the International Lion’s Convention in Hamburg, Germany, to help make connections with persons in developing countries for the distribution of PETs through Lions Clubs. They consider it a privilege to promote such a worthy project in this manner. John’s role was riding around the booths for visibility and Barbara did some of the detail work, collecting information from contacts made.
Coordinator, Walter Hays of Anchorage, Ala. indicated that we made many worthwhile contacts during our time at the convention. There will be lots of follow-up in the coming months. Hays was especially excited to meet persons who have been distribution partners in the past.
Language barriers made some communication difficult, but smiles constitute a universal language, as different people got the vision of what these vehicles might mean to people in their countries. In dealing with a few of the delegates, we were able to communicate at some level. An interesting side note is that the same language barrier made it difficult to communicate the concept of “sharing” with a couple of children who could have spent all day enjoying what they may have viewed as a toy. We did the best we could.
After spending several days in Hamburg, we traveled from Berlin to Prague (Czech Republic) on a river cruise that was both peaceful and educational. The Elbe River passed right through the area made famous by Martin Luther. In Wittenberg, the most famous church was “off limits” as the town prepares for the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s publishing of 99 theses. Prague itself was spared from heavy bombing in World War II and most agree that it is a very beautiful city.
Three weeks prior to our arrival, the Elbe River had been in flood stage, what some might call a 100-year flood. By the time we arrived, water levels were so low that the ship captain was getting nervous about clearance for the flat-bottomed craft.
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