CMTA Scooter Giveaway

Beginning in March 2007, in a partnership with Scootaround and the Clarence Vincent Foundation, the Charcot-Marie-Tooth Association (CMTA) will give away four electric scooters each year to people with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, an inherited neuropathy that causes muscle wasting and may severely limit a person’s mobility.

“We are always looking for ways to offer additional services,” said CMTA Executive Director Charles F. Hagins, “and our partnership with the Clarence Vincent Foundation will give us an extraordinary opportunity to help restore freedom and independence to a few of the many people severely affected by CMT.”

“We understand the needs of an organization with varying levels of resources”, said Lee Meagher, President and CEO of Scootaround, “and we are proud to partner with the CMTA and help people affected by CMT move around with added control, comfort and self-confidence.”

In 1986, Meagher’s father, Clarence William Vincent, suffered a stroke that affected his ability to speak, read and walk. At the age of 58 he was forced to retire and adapt to his physical limitations. But his family realized the need to get him back to his day-to-day life and got him a scooter. Seeing how the scooter helped her father regain his independence, Lee Meagher created Scootaround, a company designed to make it easier for people with disabilities to rent a wheelchair or scooter. Today, Scootaround operates about 125 locations that serve over 500 cities throughout North America, and rents about 1,000 scooters and wheelchairs every month.

In honor of her father, Meagher launched the Clarence William Vincent Foundation to improve the quality of life for those with limited mobility and to provide the necessary equipment to get them from one place to another. “This gift of mobility is something that my father would have wanted all of those with impaired mobility to experience,” Meagher said. “I know what a scooter meant to my dad and to my family. A scooter provides more than independence and mobility – it provides a sense of dignity.”

Recipient Criteria:

Physical requirements range from individuals who cannot walk other than very short distances to those with weakness of the upper extremities that prevent them from self-propelling a manual wheelchair. Generally, applicants must:

• have difficulty operating or be unable to operate a manual wheelchair
• be capable of safely operating the controls of a scooter
• require the use of a scooter to move around their residence or out of doors
• have a condition such that a scooter will be needed indefinitely
• not presently own a scooter or powered wheelchair or otherwise be able to afford one

If the applicant is selected to receive a scooter, he or she must also be able to make arrangements to have the scooter picked up or delivered from a Scootaround depot in one of the following select locations:

• Las Vegas, NV
• Orlando, FL (Clermont)
• Washington, DC
• Atlanta, GA (Jonesboro)
• Chicago, IL
• San Diego, CA

How to Apply:

1. Download an application form by clicking here. (An application may also be obtained by e-mailing scooter@charcot-marie-tooth.org or writing the CMTA at 2700 Chestnut Street, Chester, PA, 19013.)
2. Complete all sections of the application, making sure to sign both the application and the waiver.
3. Mail or fax your fully completed application to the Charcot-Marie-Tooth Association, 2700 Chestnut St, Chester, PA 19013. Fax: 1-610-499-9267.

The CMTA will confirm receipt of your application, and you will be contacted if further information is required.

If you are not selected as a recipient during the current giveaway, your application will remain on file and be considered for subsequent giveaways.

Please do not contact the CMTA regarding the status of your application unless there is a change in the information you provided.