Benefit supports medical gear for poor nations

More than 30 cyclists from northwest Ohio will be taking off from the Toledo Zoo Saturday morning for a six-day bike tour intended to support the Rotary Club's mission to ship used medical equipment to poor countries.

Medical Equipment and Supplies Abroad, or MESA, is a Rotary project that takes unwanted hospital beds, dentist chairs, and a variety of other medical equipment that otherwise would go to a landfill and donates it to countries that can use it.

Since it started in 2005, the annual MESA Bike Tour has become the biggest fund-raiser of the year for the project.

"We collect what dentists' offices and doctors' offices and hospitals are replacing because it's out of date or not good anymore," said Gary Murphy, who chairs the Toledo Rotary Club's international committee. "The equipment might seem obsolete in the United States, but to Third World countries, it's unbelievably great."

Mr. Murphy said the bike tour raised $62,000 for the cause last year, and Rotarians from the 66 clubs in Ohio District 6600 are hoping to raise up to $75,000 from this week's bike tour. Participants gather pledges and pay registration fees to support MESA.

"We raise money because even though we get the medical equipment basically for free and we do the labor of hauling it to a warehouse, we still have to pay approximately $5,000 per semi load to ship it," Mr. Murphy said.

This year's tour begins in Toledo and covers about 45 miles to Port Clinton today. From there, cyclists will head to Elyria tomorrow, to Norwalk Monday, to Fostoria Tuesday, and to Defiance Wednesday, and will end up in Sylvania on Thursday.

Along the way, cyclists will visit area hospitals that have agreed to donate equipment to MESA.

For more information about MESA, go to www.rotarymesa.org.