JUST “PUSH THE BUTTONS” AND HELP MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
In the fall of 2024 after my husband, who was a C2 Complete para, passed away, I donated some of his durable medical equipment, including his power wheel chair, to REquipment, Inc., the DME reuse company that has refurbished and donated over $16.6 million worth of devices to people of all ages.
As a result of my donation, I was on REquipment’s emailing list and received a distressing one late last spring. As a result of budget cuts, REquipment was slated to lose $500,000, a devastating amount. BUT, there was going to be a Senate committee hearing reviewing the cuts and REquipment requested we contact the state senators on the committee, especially if one of them was “your’ senator, and one of them was mine!
The email was set up so to contact “my” senator, all I had to do was fill in the blanks with my name and address to verify that I was a constituent and push the send button. The explanation and the request were already in the message.
A week or so later, I received another email from REquipment that the cut had been removed and funding restored by the committee, but the bill was going to the Senate for approval. Once again, the email contained a request to your senator to support the bill and, once again, I pushed the button.
The bill passed the Senate and then went on to the House. Once again, REquipment sent an email, this time asking us to contact our state representative, and again, I pushed the button. The next email I got announced that the House had passed the bill and funding was restored for 2026 fiscal year. Naturally I was delighted and happy that I had “pushed the buttons”.
About a week later as I was driving to do some errands, a strange phone number came up on my dashboard caller ID. Ordinarily I do not answer unknown callers, but I was expecting a call from someone whose cell number I was unsure of, so I pushed the “accept” button, and said “hello”. The caller said, “Janice?” and I replied “yes” and he said, “Hi, I’m Dylan Fernandes”. And I said, in my snootiest voice, “From where…?” He responded, “I’m your state senator and I just wanted to let you know that the bill passed and REquipment’s funding was restored.”
Needless to say, I was flabbergasted and stumbled through an apology for my rudeness. He was most gracious and said that he completely understood. We went on to have about a 15 minute conversation about his interest in the Disability Community, my husband’s injury and how I got involved with SCIBoston, the various resources available and the necessity of funding them. I hung up from the phone call so grateful that I had “pushed the buttons” and that I have a concerned and involved state senator.
As soon as I got home from my errands, I called Vita and told her what had happened and how surprised and excited I was to have gotten a call from my state senator. She replied, “But you pushed the buttons.”
The moral of this story is that we can make a difference by contacting our state and national representatives. The process I described from REquipment is in the emails we receive from Vita at SCIboston and from United Spinal.
SO PUSH THOSE BUTTONS!
By Janice Brodil