Kendall Lions Club donates medical equipment to war victims in Ukraine
Photos by Tom Rivers
KENDALL – Members of the Kendall Lions Club have donated medical equipment that will be going to people harmed in the Russian war against Ukraine. Mike Albanese pushes the wheelchair in this photo.
The Lions Club has a Medical Loan Closet in the basement of the Kendall Medical Office at 16815 Roosevelt Hwy. There were many surplus items and the Lions Club donated six wheelchairs, about 70 walkers, and many crutches, rolling walkers with seats and IV poles.
The club still has many of the items to loan out to people who need them in the Kendall community and eastern Orleans County.
“We have way more stuff than we need,” said John Becker, a Lion Club member who runs the Medical Loan Closet with Mike Cusimano and Gary Crawford.
Mike Albanese, left, and Tom Cole, a Lions Club member and owner of the Hilton-Spencerport Express trucking company, put the donated items in one of Cole’s trucks. Cole would then deliver the equipment to a Xerox warehouse in Webster, joining other medical equipment items that will be transported by a shipping container to Ukraine. That shipment will be coordinated by RocMaidan, a humanitarian and medical aid organization affiliated with the Ukrainian Cultural Center of Rochester.
Maureen Lemke of Kendall volunteers with RocMaidan and helped load the medical equipment on Thursday. In addition to all the medical equipment from Kendall and other medical loan closets, she said RocMaidan also will be sending hospital beds, medications, surgical backpacks and energy bars.
Ukraine has suffered since it was invaded by Russia on February 24, 2022.
RocMaidan formed in 2014 to assist Ukraine after a Russian invasion of Crimea. RocMaidan has shipped over 500 tons of aid to Ukraine since then. The organization is packing its 33rd shipping container on Saturday and it will include the medical equipment from Kendall.
Dave Strasenburgh pushes a wheelchair that will be donated to war victims in Ukraine.
Kendall has had a medical loan closet since the 1970s. It was initially based at the Kendall Fire Hall but outgrew that space. It was then in Town Hall basement but needed more room. It is now in the basement of the Kendall Medical Center, where it has a walk-out basement making it easy to bring in items and get them out when they are needed by people in the community.
The group that loaded the medical equipment on Thursday includes, front row, from left: John Becker, Mike Cusimano, Dave Strasenburgh, Gary Crawford, and Maureen and John Lemke. In back: Mike Albanese and Tom Cole.
