(JNS) Yad Sarah announces the benefit of Wheel It Forward, a Connecticut-based not-for-profit organization that offers a convenient destination for anyone to easily borrow or donate durable medical equipment. Like Yad Sarah’s lending centers, Wheel It Forward is a volunteer-run community library that provides equipment for anyone in need free of charge.

Wheel It Forward founder Elliot Sloyer was inspired to build a team and start the American-based organization when he visited Yad Sarah in Israel back in 2018.

Sloyer was chaperoning a month-long eighth-grade trip from the Bi-Cultural Hebrew Academy to Israel when he was introduced to the organization. “When I saw the world-class presentation, I said to myself, ‘Wow. This is just an incredible idea, an incredible concept,’ ” he said.

When one of the students was injured during the trip, the school borrowed a wheelchair from Yad Sarah for the remainder of their visit. Sloyer spoke highly of Yad Sarah’s assistance, adding “that was my exposure to Yad Sarah, and it was an inspiration to me to come back to America to see what’s going on in our blessed country.”

“A true act of kindness always prompts another; that’s what happened when Elliot visited Yad Sarah in Israel,” said Friends of Yad Sarah executive director Adele Goldberg.

He said he started collecting and lending out equipment on a personal level to test the idea in the United States, forming the Wheel It Forward board in the summer of 2020 with a soft launch it in October, working out of the Stamford Government Center that serves greater Fairfield County in Connecticut. Now, it is being thoroughly operational.

Said Goldberg: “We are so proud to have inspired Elliot to improve the lives of others in his community, and he has done so with the same passion and dedication of our volunteers in Israel.”

Main Photo: Medical equipment lent out by Yad Sarah. Credit: Courtesy.