ARVADA, Colo. – Since 2017, Dave’s Locker has been offering everything from wheelchairs and walkers to hospital beds free to people in the community who find themselves in temporary need of medical devices.
It’s a saving grace for many people who can’t afford to buy or rent the equipment they need.
“All of our equipment comes in donated from anybody and everybody, and then we clean it up and loan it out,” said Don Lindsey, who manages Dave’s Locker alongside his wife, Theresa Lindsey.
The Lindseys took over after founder Dave Matus retired. Matus, a firefighter, started the locker after he had hip surgery and couldn’t find the equipment he temporarily needed. After he ended up buying what he needed, Matus decided to start loaning it out along with other donated pieces.
Today, Dave’s Locker loans out 300 pieces of equipment a month.
“We get a lot of thank you notes,” Theresa Lindsey said. “We had a homeless person who has a double amputee and didn't have a wheelchair, and she was going through a group home kind of a thing. And they called and we had an electric wheelchair that got donated to us, and we gave it to her and they sent us an email and said, ‘You changed this person's life.’”
The Lindseys manage the Locker free of cost while still working full-time jobs. Don Lindsey is an Arvada firefighter and Theresa Lindsey is an ICU nurse. They’ve done a lot to get more donations and organize things so they can easily be found online, but they say they couldn’t do it alone and give a lot of the credit to the other volunteers who help them.
“We organized it, but the volunteers run it,” Theresa Lindsey said.
“When people come in, we find out what they’re having done surgery wise, and we can help with, ‘Have you thought about a shower chair or things like that?'” volunteer Sherry Pieropan added.
Volunteer Dave Floyd said volunteering at Dave’s Locker is like working with family — it’s a lot of fun.
“They're very generous people by nature,” he said. “They go out of their way to help the people coming in, but they go out of their way to help us too.”
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