Full Background Story Of The 'Van Fund'

Let's clear something up first - I HAD a van. It's one I'd had since 1992, and one I got through the kindness of a wonderful woman named Yvonne, who sold it to me at much less than its value. There were a number of reasons for this incredible gesture, but the main one was that it had belonged to her son, Corey, an amazing guy who, too, had Muscular Dystrophy, but had passed away a couple of years before. It had taken her and her family that long to finally part with it, and their choice to let it go came at the exact perfect time for us to find each other. Through their actions, I got my first vehicle at the age of twenty-four, and finally achieved complete independence. And I will always have them... and Corey... to thank for that.

It took me until twenty-four to get a van because it took me that long to be able to afford one. You see, I can't drive just any vehicle. Due to my disability, I need a handicapped-equipped van. But due to my particular disability situation, an ordinary modified van, with hand-controls and such, won't do. I needed a van with something called the Scott System, a very expensive driving system that allows people like myself with limited mobility, reach and strength to operate it. And as suggested, it ain't cheap. Prices were different back then, but these days, a new van with that system in it is going for about $90,000.

My van has carried me along through almost fifteen years, and has been a Godsend. It's allowed me to live on my own, to work through all those years, to get around without the need of assistance from others. It really did change my entire life. But the problem is that it ran almost non-stop for fifteen years. And as much as I love it and where it came from, it's a 1985 van, with almost 170,000 miles on it, and it's falling apart. Almost daily. And it's wasn't going to last much longer.

 

The Old Van

Half the things on my van either don’t work or don’t work properly.

For example -- this is the way getting into the van is supposed to work: I’m supposed to be able to roll up there in my chair, put a key in the rear of the vehicle, bring the wheelchair lift down, ride up on it, get in the van, start it, and drive away. Sounds easy, right?

As it stands now, due to electrical and mechanical problems, I have to go up to the front door of the van, open it, reach up -- due to the Muscular Dystrophy, “reaching up” is not something I do well -- to the control box for the system, hit the ignition button, reach up and over (that reach thing again) to the steering wheel (which I can barely reach from down there) and hit the start button and hold down the gas to start it up.

This is because I now can’t use the lift without starting the engine first, or it drains the battery immediately. Next, I must go back to the rear of the van and start to bring the lift down but most do so carefully, with careful segmented use of the switch, because if I just activate it outright the lift tends to stick and stays up there while the chains on it just feed out onto the ground.

Then I must hop the chair over the little ramp at the end of the lift because it no longer folds down when the lift reaches ground; reach up and pull down the activation lever for raising the lift because it no longer folds down with the lift like it’s supposed to, ride the lift up and say a prayer that it won’t short out halfway up (which it’s started doing) and leave me stuck there, get inside, close the doors, then get up front and strap into the driver’s seat and put it into reverse (which I sort of have to do by “feel”, because the gear change indicator no longer works) and take off.

Getting out, I need to reverse the whole process, again leaving the engine running while I’m getting out for the lift to work, and since the controls at the rear for the lift no longer raise the lift back up, I have to put my hand on the lever switch on the lift and hold onto it as it goes back up (and try not to get pulled out of the chair in the process), and then go up the driver door, open it, reach up and turn off the engine.

At any given time one of the parts of this process may just not work, so each time getting in and out is a breath-holding experience.

The Old Van

I’ve had many exciting adventures with the rapidly-aging van.

There was the time the electrical system went out in the middle of the freeway, at the intersection of two freeways, during rush hour traffic, leaving me stranded in the middle (until a police cruiser rolled up, and the officer advised me “You’re going to get killed” and had to push me and my van off the freeway with his cruiser.

There was the time the crankshaft ate itself at 70mph on the freeway, which almost put me through the center divider. Or the time the steering gave out when I was making a left turn across traffic, leaving me stranded blocking both lanes of oncoming traffic.

Or when the gear controls went out when I was backing out of a parking space at a small market, and I blocked anyone from getting their cars into the lot.

Or the big issue lately, the lift. Recently it went really bad to where I could get the lift down, but couldn’t get it back up. I had to bring it down, get out of my chair and literally crawl into the back of the van, use the manual controls inside to bring the lift (and my chair) up to me and then get back in the chair.

Then when getting out, I wouldn’t be able to get it back up, so, until I found a place to work on it (my lift is so old the manufacturer no longer supports it, so 95% of shops won’t touch it for insurance reasons), I had to slide open the side door on the van, get out of my chair, sit on the floor, and hold onto my chair and lower it to the ground myself...and then lower myself into it. Which was a pain (and a workout), but was kind of working until the night I got home from work and was trying to do this overly complicated procedure, and the chair dropped and just yanked me right out of the van with it and threw me to the asphalt. Okay, ouch. That hurt.

There’s a big list of things that aren’t working, and new things being added to it all the time.

Right now, in fact, I’m trying to find parts for the after-market electric windows, because it’s turned summertime in Sacramento, and it’s hitting 90 degrees already, and neither of my windows roll down and the air-conditioning is out (THAT makes for a long commute).

If things go wrong but there’s still some kind of work-around, it’s annoying, but I don’t complain much, as long as it’ll still get me to work somehow.

But it’s when things break that have to be fixed where the problems come in. Assuming I can even find someone to work on what the problem is, the problem is usually very expensive to fix. And continuing to pour money into a twenty-year old van that’s just going to keep going under until it shakes off this mortal coil doesn’t make a lot of sense.

The old van from another angle

 

So I’ve known for a while that this thing is on its last legs. Which leads to the idea of replacing it. Which leads us back to the $50,000 thing. Okay, I didn’t actually have $50,000. I work for a living, as I said. I’m very disabled, but I don’t take a government check. I work, and I work hard - often twelve hours at day at the office, often six days a week.

Unfortunately, I don’t have the kind of job that pays enough to be able to replace the van (frankly, not enough to continue fixing it). I’ve known for a while now that one of these times, probably quite soon, something’s finally going to go wrong that’s not fixable or is way too expensive to fix, and that then I’d be stuck looking for a new van (and some way to afford it).

I should also note that finding one of these vans available is no easy task either. Brand new ones cost $90k and are obviously way, way out of my price range, which leaves me with needing to find a used one, and generally somebody out there has to be selling one for that to happen.

And that person could be on the other side of the country or 10 miles down the road - there just aren’t that many of these out there in the first place.

So, as you have been able to appreciate from reading this page, I really needed a new van.

Some friends who know about these things suggested putting a page up on the internet and asking for help. I don't usually do 'help', being fiercely independent and all, but straws are straws and I was running out of options. Actually, not so much running out of them as not having any to begin with.

Which is where and how the van fund idea came into being.

Then this came up

 

Links

Van Fund

Muscular Dystrophy Association

Scott System

 

Paying Back Grandma

My Grandma stepped in when I was about to miss my only chance to stay mobile and working.

If she hadn't, I would be looking at unemployment and not being able to get around.

She put herself into debt to the tune of $30k just for me. I'd like to pay her back.

Although I work, it isn't exactly a highly paid job. If you can help me, and my Grandma, with a small donation, I would appreciate it very much indeed.

Thank you.