Wheelchair Sundays: Changing lives for those in need

October 14, 2024

By Constanza Morales
Special to The Texas Catholic

Imagine for a moment being a child and not having the ability to walk. Imagine wanting to go to school or church and not being able to do so because you don’t have a wheelchair. This is a reality for tens of thousands of children in poor communities around the world.

Over the last 15 years, however, the generosity of the Catholics in the Diocese of Dallas has helped thousands of those disabled children living in poverty change their lives through the gift of those much-needed wheelchairs.

Through an initiative called Wheelchair Sundays, parishes in the diocese have contributed $661,000 of the $1.2 million raised in Texas. The effort is made possible by a partnership between the American Wheelchair Mission, the Knights of Columbus, and diocesan parishes.

“A wheelchair impacts the person who uses it and ten people around them,” Ricardo Guzman, CEO of AWM, explained. “Everyone talks about inclusion, but there can be no inclusion without mobility.”

Father Jason Cargo of St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church in Plano celebrates Mass at the Rehabilitation Center and Children’s Inclusion and Telethon in Chihuahua, Mexico, in August as part of the Wheelchair Sunday program with the Knights of Columbus and the American Wheelchair Mission (Photo courtesy of the American Wheelchair Mission)

Changing lives

In Texas, among the 800 Knights of Columbus councils, just under 250 participate in Wheelchair Sundays. Dallas leads the way with about 40 diocesan parishes participating in the collection annually.

The ties that unite families across the Texas-Mexico border have meant that most donations from this state go to communities in that country, where AWM works as a team with the Centers for Child Rehabilitation and Inclusion and Telethon.

“We are impacting the community from where we come from,” said Charlie Minjares, a member of the Knights of Columbus at St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church in Plano. Although his job has taken Minjares to Fairfax, Virginia, he still travels to Dallas to continue promoting the Wheelchair Sundays that happen once a year at each parish.

“I have a brother in a wheelchair, and I see my parents struggle to make his life more comfortable,” Minjares said. “I understand what a wheelchair means to a person and their family. Even if we just collect pennies, it’s something that helps change someone’s life.”

With a contribution of $150 from one person, AWM can purchase a wheelchair as it works directly with the manufacturing company and guarantees delivery in containers.

Father Jason Cargo, left, pastor of St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church in Plano, traveled to Coahuila, Mexico, in August to help deliver wheelchairs to children in need as part of a collaboration with the Knights of Columbus and the American Wheelchair Mission. (Photo courtesy of the American Wheelchair Mission)

Dream big

Last August, Father Jason Cargo, pastor of St. Mark, traveled to Chihuahua to help deliver about 60 of the 280 wheelchairs that were purchased thanks to the generosity of parishioners, who raised more than $60,000 in 2023.

“It was wonderful to be there and witness that moment,” Father Cargo said. “There were children whose only option was to be pushed in strollers, and now it’s going to be different. It speaks volumes about the heart of our parishioners in the Diocese of Dallas.”

The parish hopes to double its fundraising this year at its Wheelchair Sunday on Oct. 13.

St. Mark has participated in the program for seven years and, in 2023, is the third largest fundraiser in the diocese behind Prince of Peace Catholic Church in Plano and Mary Immaculate Catholic Church in Farmers Branch.

“We want to change people’s lives, and the hearts of Catholics in Dallas never fail us,” said Bill Weber, a pioneer in promoting Wheelchair Sundays at Prince of Peace, the church that leads the way in donations in the state of Texas.

Weber credits a video shared by a close friend of the Knights and the experience of living with a disabled brother as motivating him to start Wheelchair Sundays at his parish in 2010.

Fourteen years later, Weber feels grateful and motivated to do more.

“It’s very gratifying,” Weber said with tears in his eyes. “I never imagined this effort would grow to this extent, and now I feel we are capable of doing more.”

The goal, Weber said, is to invite more Knights of Columbus councils to participate and to get more priests to open their parish doors to spread the message.

Wheelchair Sunday is preceded by an announcement made on the Sunday prior to the collection taking place. At St. Mark, the announcement will be on Oct. 6.

“There is a lot of potential to grow and spread the message,” Weber said. “If there are more of us, we will change more lives.”

Constanza Morales is the managing editor of Revista Católica Dallas, the Spanish-language magazine of the Diocese of Dallas.