Ed Keeling and Catherine Cambridge collected 200 crutches for earthquake victims in Haiti

For Ed Keeling, recycling is about more than improving the environment – it’s an opportunity to help people in need. Keeling, of The Highlands, and his wife, Catherine Cambridge, recently delivered a U-Haul truck full of crutches, walkers and wheel chairs to a Pittsburgh charity that will deliver the goods to victims of the earthquake in Haiti. One of Cambridge’s coworkers at Dynamic Physical Therapy started collecting mobility equipment after the earthquake, Keeling said, and it seemed like such a good idea that he decided to start collecting, too. “It occurred to me that all over New Castle County there are crutches, canes and wheel chairs cluttering up people’s attics and basements,” he said. “They were used one time and they’d never be used again.” In January, he started asking everyone he knew – even the mailman – to donate old mobility equipment. About 20 percent of the people he spoke with had something they could donate, he said, and after four months of collecting, Keeling had amassed 200 crutches, 20 walkers, seven wheel chairs and three Rollators (a cross between a walker and a wheel chair). He and his wife loaded up a truck, drove to Pittsburgh and donated the equipment to Global Links, a charity that collects and ships discarded mobility equipment all over the third world. “I can’t think of a better feeling than to take all these things that were just sitting in basements and ultimately giving them to somebody who can’t get around,” he said. But Keeling has no intention of stopping his collection. He is asking anyone with unwanted mobility equipment to e-mail him at crutchestohaiti@gmail.com and he will schedule a pickup.