Caring Closet provides medical equipment for those who need it

When Sara Scheetz and Jodie Zelazny started squirrelling away walkers and bath benches in their garages, they never expected it to turn into a nonprofit organization serving thousands of Clark County residents in just a couple of years.

But that’s exactly what happened.

“I had no idea it would turn into this,” Scheetz said.

“It just became a monster,” Zelazny said.

Scheetz and Zelazny both work in senior care — Scheetz at At Your Place Senior Care, Zelazny at Community Home Health and Hospice. A few years ago, the friends realized durable medical equipment was going to waste.

Someone moves out of a senior community and leaves behind a bath bench. The family clearing out an apartment after a loved one dies leaves a walker. Someone needs a crutches after a surgery and tosses them once healed.

“People are throwing it away, but there’s so many people out there who need it,” Scheetz said.

So Scheetz and Zelazny started bringing the gently used equipment home and storing it in their garages. Word spread about what the women were doing, and more donations started coming in. As the garages filled up, they decided to move the operation into a storage unit.

In the evenings after work and on weekends, the Vancouver women were meeting people with donations and those seeking medical equipment at the storage unit and making swaps. The duo called their operation A Caring Closet and established it as a nonprofit in November 2015.

The nonprofit accepts a wide range of medical equipment, including hospital beds, bath benches, bath bars, lift chairs, scooters/power chairs, walkers, commodes, wheelchairs and adult briefs. The organization also collects microwaves for Meals on Wheels recipients.

They don’t accept medical supplies, such as unused syringes, catheters and bandages.

Once the donations come in, volunteers inspect the equipment, clean it up and make it available for someone in need. The nonprofit doesn’t have any income restrictions; items are available for anyone who needs them. Everything is first-come, first-serve.

Sometimes they see people who need an item not covered by insurance, such as a bath bench. Other times, it’s people who need a wheelchair right away, but they’re waiting for insurance approval. And for some, such as those in hospice care, it’s providing items that improve quality of life.

They estimate that in the past 2 1/2 years, the nonprofit has distributed about 10,000 pieces of equipment.

“Seeing the need being fulfilled is so great,” Zelazny said.

One of Zelazny’s favorite stories is of a 21-year-old woman who was home-bound and couldn’t afford a scooter. The nonprofit supplied a power chair and the young woman is now enrolled in classes at Clark College.

“Stories like that are why we still do this,” Zelazny said.

“Something so simple changed her life,” Scheetz added.

Last summer, the nonprofit finally secured a space outside of the storage unit. When Boomerang Therapy Works opened up in downtown Vancouver, they offered A Caring Closet space within their studio and opened up accessibility to the nonprofit.

Now, anyone can swing by Boomerang Therapy Works during business hours — 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday — to drop off donations or pick up items. Boomerang employees direct visitors to the closet and help them find what they need.

(Donations can also be dropped off at Crown Medical Supply in Salmon Creek.)

Zelazny hopes to recruit more volunteers, who can staff the closet and respond to inquiries about equipment. They receive 25 emails and up to 50 calls a week.

Their wish-list also includes a box truck — something they can use to pick up the bigger, heavier equipment that donors can’t transport. For now, they rely on a volunteer who borrows a trailer once a month and picks up donations.

In the meantime, they’ll continue collecting donations as they can and distributing them to people who need them.

“It’s just a very simple concept,” Zelazny said.