Today we’d like to introduce you to Crystal Laramore.
Hi Crystal, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Crystal Laramore is a Texas native with a long history of entrepreneurship, community involvement and service to our country through those endeavors. She has owned a restaurant, a few newspapers, and a small real estate investment business. However, Crystal’s love for the military, and the desire to serve those who wear a uniform to protect and serve us, is foremost in her life now. She comes from a family history steeped in the American tradition of serving our country, a passion that runs deep in her family roots. “My father was in the 101st Airborne and his brother, my uncle, retired as a full-bird Colonel, after a very prestigious career”. With a burning desire in her heart to serve, Crystal worked for the Department of State (DOS) in Baghdad, Iraq from 2004-2006. She served as a liaison officer to the Ambassador to Iraq, John Negroponte, and received a letter of commendation from the DOS.
It was this experience that sparked the fire in her to found an organization that serves veterans and first responders; after noticing a gap between what our warriors NEED and what they are afforded. Crystal and her co-founder, Heidi Hansing, began a mission to provide better wheelchair solutions that would allow wounded veterans and first responders to regain some of their independence and give them the ability to ROLL STRONG!
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Our biggest challenges are not unlike most businesses… raising money! When we first started we thought we would hire a grant writer and the rest would be history. Well, finding a competent grant writer who isn’t already working full time is like finding a Unicorn!!! So, we had to adapt and overcome and teach ourselves how to write grants! You can imagine how COVID affected our fundraising. Just as we were hitting our stride, the world shut down. It was very stressful and depressing for our recipients. Not only were they in need of new wheelchairs, but they were being isolated more than ever. That isolation turned to depression for many and we are just now working them out of those situations.
Word is spreading about our services and we have, at any given moment, 14 to 18 warriors waiting to be served. These are warriors who cannot get help from either their primary healthcare provider. We fly our rehab seating specialist to wherever in the United States the warrior lives, he performs a complex, rehab, seating clinic, flies back and designs the chair. Once the chair is designed, a manufacturer in the United States builds the wheelchair and then it is shipped to us for inspection and tweaking. The seating specialist, Paul Morgan, then flies with the chair back to the warrior’s home and presents it, trains the warrior how to use it and trains his caregiver.
So, one of our biggest challenges is the cost of travel, which includes flights, rental cars, etc. And those costs are just going up with no end in sight!
We always want to make sure people know that we are building complex machines. What we build cannot be found at your local medical equipment store. If all a warrior can do is blink, breathe, or move a finger we can build a motorized wheelchair that will propel them up and down the street, stand them up or lay them completely flat!!
We also want you to know that we are not giving warriors wheelchairs. We are giving them independence!
As you know, we’re big fans of Wheelchairs for Warriors. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Serving warriors is our mission! With your support, we stand in the gap between what our warriors NEED and what they are afforded.
Wheelchairs for Warriors provides custom-fit, complex-rehab mobility solutions to ensure veterans and first responders, injured in the line of duty, rejoin their lives at the highest level of INDEPENDENT mobility and function possible!
Before Wheelchairs for Warriors came along, many of our recipients were distraught, depressed and feeling isolated. Many were unable to get around their own homes, maneuver the great outdoors, go to the parks or beaches with their wives and families, or play an adaptive sport. The burden was also shared by their caretakers having to assist them with their heavy, bulky, inadequate wheelchairs. Thanks to our supporters and charitable donations, they are able to enjoy more independence and a better quality of life.
Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
My all-time favorite book is Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. Pillars of the Earth is next and after that anything about American history or European history. I’m kind of addicted to anything about King Henry the VIII. For fiction, you can find me reading novels about Hemingway, the Vanderbilts, Carnegie’s, Edison, or any of the early industrialists, writers, or any noteworthy artists.
One of my favorite apps is Instagram! I love following hashtags like #capri #amalficoast #jointhemission #wheelchairsforwarriors and many others! I love that by clicking on the hashtag (a hyperlink) I can be transported to another world and learn so much about a subject! #swiperight
Pricing:
- The average cost of a wheelchair is $12,054
Contact Info:
- Email: crystal@wheelchairsforwarriors.org
- Website: www.wheelchairsforwarriors.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wheelchairsforwarriors
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wheelchairsforwarriors
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/home
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTdSgaFV9Ufzw3tGUAGvBcA
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/in/crystallaramore/
Image Credits
Crystal Lee Laramore
