In 2013, John Danner marked his 60th birthday by cycling from Fort Lauderdale to Key West, Florida. The solo ride was co-sponsored by the Sanibel Congregational UCC and the Rotary Club of Sanibel-Captiva. That year, in the first Wheels for Wheels ride, some $22,000 was raised to purchase wheelchairs that went to Trinidad. Subsequently, the rides have evolved into the Howard S Danner, Jr Wheels for Wheels Cycling Challenge, with many participants from the Rotary Club of Sanibel-Captiva. Since the second ride, fellow San-Cap Rotary members Roger Grogman and John Henshaw have co-chaired the event with Danner and have been joined on the committee this year by Maria Espinoza and Tom Green.
Each year on average over $25,000 has been raised, totaling over $150,000 since the inception of the event. Working with Rotary Clubs abroad and the Wheelchair Foundation, wheelchairs to those in need have gone to Guatemala, Bermuda, Barbados, Peru and most recently Belize. Members of the Sanibel-Captiva Rotary Club have often accompanied the wheelchairs and helped to distribute them. Six members of the Sanibel-Captiva Rotary Club (Linda Arnold, John Danner, Barbara Ellis, Roxanne and Bob Stern and Michael Young) went to Belize. They were also joined by three members of the North Naples club (Charlotte Nal, Roger Dick and Joe Badway). Locally, following the devastation wrought by Hurricane Ian, wheelchairs were provided to FISH, the Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum and the Sanibel Community House to replace those lost in the storm. Hurricane Ian washed their wheelchairs out to sea in the surge.
This year’s ride, the 6th annual, culminated on April 5th with a celebration at the Sanibel Community House. There the club was presented with a special award by Gary Dworkin and Jim Fabry, representing Rotary District 6960 and the Wheelchair Foundation, in recognition of the over 1400 wheelchairs provided over the years by the Sanibel-Captiva club. The Wheelchair Foundation is a nonprofit organization leading an international effort to create awareness of the needs and abilities of people with physical disabilities, to promote the joy of giving, create global friendship, and to deliver a wheelchair to every child, teen, and adult in the world who needs one, but cannot afford one. For those people, the Sanibel Captiva Rotary Club and Wheelchair Foundation delivers hope, mobility and independence to many.
Howard Danner, for whom the ride is named, was confined to a wheelchair for the last 17 years of his life and was the inspiration for John’s first ride.
