One charitable act by a former parishioner of the Johnstown Church of the Ascension about 10 years ago led to creation of a service that has benefited hundreds of people by providing them with free medical equipment.
The parish’s medical loan closet offers items as large as wheelchairs, walkers, shower seats and knee scooters and as small as an adhesive bandage to residents of Johnstown and surrounding communities. There is no cost for any of the items except the scooters, which require a $50 refundable deposit.
The closet has been located in the basement of a Johnstown doctor’s office since it was created by John Stover, formerly of Johnstown, who now lives in Galion with his wife, Neva, and son, Scott.
“The whole idea began with a discussion about Parkinson’s disease Neva attended in 2010 or 2011 at Licking Memorial Hospital in Newark because she was showing signs of Parkinson’s,” Mr. Stover said.
“A woman there said she had a wheelchair available and was willing to give it to anybody who needed one. I accepted the offer because I felt Neva might have to use one at some point, then left the chair inside my van.
“This was on a Friday night. We went to Mass at Ascension that Sunday, and someone saw me afterwards, said he saw the wheelchair and asked if he could borrow it if I wasn’t using it.
I said it was all right and had him sign a paper saying I was loaning it and he would return it. Then a woman said she’d like to borrow the chair, and I told her I already had loaned it.
“That made me wonder how many people might have a similar need, so I asked Father (J.L.) Reichert (the church’s pastor at the time) if I could get up at the next Mass and ask people to let me know if they needed wheelchairs, and I’d see what I could do about finding them.
“Deacon Bill Andrews (who served the parish as a deacon from 2008 until retiring in 2020) was president of Licking Memorial Health Systems at the time. He said he had about five items at his house he could donate to me. I used my garage for storage at first, but the number of donated items quickly outgrew that space.
“Deacon Bill made arrangements for me to move the closet in the basement of the doctor’s office Licking Memorial has in Johnstown, and it was relocated there, where it’s been ever since.”
Calling the medical supply area, located at 151 Woodgate Drive, just off U.S. Route 62, a closet is a little misleading, because its size is much larger. It’s stacked from top to bottom with medical equipment and is open from 4 to 6 p.m. Wednesdays and other times by appointment.
Ascension parishioner Bob Haury said about five or six people visit the closet every week, with summer being the busiest time.
Those coming to the site sign for use of an item for a set period, generally 30, 60 or 90 days, and are supposed to return it at the end of that time. Haury keeps track of the items and said he rarely has problems getting them returned. Upon return, they are cleaned, sanitized and deodorized by volunteer John Yeagle before being returned to use.
Haury said a deposit is required for the scooters because they are in short supply. The scooter, also known as a knee walker, is a mobility aid device with three to five wheels, a padded knee support and a steering handle. It allows people to take the weight off an injured leg by resting it on the support while using the uninjured leg to get around.
When the Stovers moved to Galion about three years ago to live with their son, they asked for volunteers to help continue the work of the closet. Haury said about 10 people responded. “I was retired and live about five minutes away from the doctor’s office where the closet is,” he said. “I had plenty of time and felt this was something useful I could do, so I answered the call for help.”
For a while, the closet’s new staff kept it open every weekday. But there were many days when no one came in to request equipment, so it was decided to limit the scheduled opening time to one day a week. Besides Haury and Yeagle, the closet’s current volunteers include Dennis Murnane, who is there one Wednesday each month; Chip Rahde and Bubby Eichner, who are on call to pick up donated items; and Rae Ann Crawford, who is in the building most Wednesdays.
Crawford said she became a volunteer after borrowing a scooter for her sister, who had a broken foot.
“Every time I come there, I’m more blessed by the people who come to the building to pick up items. I get an amazing warm feeling from the way people are so appreciative of what we do, so you could say I’m helping out for both selfish and unselfish reasons,” she said.
Stover said that at one point, about $100,000 worth of medical equipment, including about 60 walkers, 15 or 20 wheelchairs and two or three hospital beds, were stored at the closet. Haury said it has temporarily stopped accepting donations and has given many of its surplus items to charities in Third World nations.
He also said the closet no longer will accept hospital beds because of their size and the difficulty in carrying them up and down the outside steps leading to the closet’s basement location.
He said that as people have learned about the closet, its outreach has spread beyond northwest Licking County and into neighboring areas of Franklin, Delaware and Knox counties. The Johnstown-New Albany area is experiencing a growth spurt because of construction of distribution and data centers by Amazon, Google and other companies, so more people are likely to be using the closet.
For more information about the closet, call Haury at (740) 967-2204 or the Ascension parish office at (740) 967-7871.
