- I had the VA call me one time
and they said they had a gentleman living in Oshkosh.
And he was a veteran but he has no mobility.
And he needs something but he doesn t have a lot of money.
I said, "Money is not a consideration.
"Bring the individual here.
Let's see what we can do for him."
So the guy comes in.
Really a nice guy but really pretty immobile.
I showed him a couple pieces of equipment.
And I had a little red scooter
that we'd just put new batteries in
and the thing was like new.
And he took it for a drive and really liked it.
He thought that was really nice.
So I says, "What do you think, John?
Make you the owner of that?"
He says, "Too much"
because we have a little price
written on the tag that's on the thing.
And I called the gal from the VA over.
And I said, "He doesn't have to pay anything
for this if he doesn't have any money."
She said, "No, he's got a little bit of money
that he wants to put towards his purchase."
So I said to him, I said,
"John, how much money do you have?"
Real proud, he says, "I got $120."
And we were asking $595 for the scooter
with new batteries and all.
I said, "Your lucky day, John.
"That particular piece of equipment,
"just this morning, we marked it down to $125,
"but hey, $120 is close enough.
We'll sell you that for $120."
The guy was just totally elated.
He was so happy.
I hated to take his money
but he just felt his ownership of that piece of equipment.
And he contributed to it.
It wasn't a gimme thing
that he was provided with by somebody else.
About three days later, I called him.
He lives in Oshkosh.
And I said, "How's it going, John?"
"Ken, yesterday," he said, "I went to Walgreens."
He'd never been to Walgreens, like two blocks from his house.
He said, "Tomorrow, I'm going to the grocery store."
And all of us guys here that day we sold it to him,
we're big, old veterans and not softies at all
but a couple of guys got sniffles in their nose
and a little bit of tear in the corner of their eye
knowing that we helped him and gave him mobility
and he paid his portion of it.
That's why we do it.
He was so happy.
How do you replicate
that kind of satisfaction in what you re doing?
It just made us feel good.
That's why I do it.