Donated durable medical equipment on the rise in Northern California

When we launched a section on NorCal SCI's web site for donated durable medical equipment goods, we weren't sure how it would be received.  We knew there were a couple of organizations in the Bay Area, ReCares in the East Bay and the Center for Independent Living in San Mateo, that accepted such goods and did not sell them but they don't take everything either as their storage space is limited. 

There are a few challenges with this idea:
a)  The person donating the equipment does not necessarily live near the potential recipient, making the exchange difficult or expensive.
b)  The person donating the equipment often wants to get the equipment off their site ASAP, making it nearly impossible to predict when an item could be requested or wanted.
c)  Where would you store all this equipment and who pays for it?

An abundance of goods that can be made available is a good problem to have but as we have learned, those three issues sometimes make this challenging to deal with, logistically and financially.  Yes, it's easy to say the recipient of the goods "should figure out how to go get the goods if they really want it" but sometimes, that's not possible for a variety of reasons.

It's a challenge that we're trying to address and will keep you posted in the near future as we're trying to collaborate with other like-minded organizations to figure out a solution.  In the meantime, you can donate your unused durable medical equipment to NorCal SCI and we can issue a tax-deductible receipt once we find a home for it.  To make your medical goods available, e-mail us at info@norcalsci.org.