Two users enjoy the beach in Pacific City courtesy of David’s Chair. Born in 2017 from a dream of allowing mobility impaired individuals to better access the outdoors, the nonprofit David’s Chair now houses 23 chairs in 17 locations across four states.Jeff Kallevig, David’s Chair’s Operations Manager for Northwest Oregon, said that the organization’s expansion had been made possible by a partnership with Oregon Parks Forever that helped bring in grant dollars to catalyze partnerships on the coast.#placement_573654_0_i{width:100%;max-width:550px;margin:0 auto;}var rnd = window.rnd || Math.floor(Math.random()*10e6);var pid573654 = window.pid573654 || rnd;var plc573654 = window.plc573654 || 0;var abkw = window.abkw || '';var absrc = 'https://ads.empowerlocal.co/adserve/;ID=181918;size=0x0;setID=573654;type=js;sw='+screen.width+';sh='+screen.height+';spr='+window.devicePixelRatio+';kw='+abkw+';pid='+pid573654+';place='+(plc573654++)+';rnd='+rnd+';click=CLICK_MACRO_PLACEHOLDER';var _absrc = absrc.split("type=js"); absrc = _absrc[0] + 'type=js;referrer=' + encodeURIComponent(document.location.href) + _absrc[1];document.write('');David Hartrick was diagnosed with ALS in 2017 and found that his decreased mobility made it hard to access outdoor recreation opportunities that he loved. Looking for a solution, Hartrick found that advanced dual-track wheelchairs capable of navigating unpaved services cost around $20,000, which would not be covered by insurance.Hartrick reached out to a friend, Steve Furst, and the pair began brainstorming about ways to solve the problem, and David’s Chair was born. That year, Hartrick and Furst joined with a group of friends to host a fundraiser, bringing in the $20,000 necessary to purchase the organization’s first chair.Tragically, Hartrick succumbed to his illness in 2018, but Furst continued the mission of developing the organization, and over the next four years four more chairs were added to the fleet. The original chairs are housed outside Medford and made available for free for weeklong stretches with a tow-and-go model.Then, in 2022, Furst began looking to expand the nonprofit’s footprint, by bringing on Kirk Nicholson to serve as Fundraising and Development Director. Nicholson helped to expand David’s Chair’s fundraising efforts, adding multiple golf outings to a once annual fundraising weekend that had traditionally supported the organization.Nicholson also helped connect Furst with Oregon Parks Forever Executive Director Seth Miller, whose organization supported grant writing efforts that have funded the acquisition of more chairs.As new chairs came online, Kallevig said that Furst and others at the nonprofit began considering supplementing the tow-and-go model with chairs in permanently located in specific locations close to recreation opportunities. Kallevig said that requiring participants to have a vehicle that could tow and was properly insured was a barrier for many and that the group found that most borrowers were taking the chairs to the beach, leading the organization to explore housing chairs there.“What they found was that most of the people who were checking the chairs out in Medford were taking them to the beach,” Kallevig said. “So, how do we build partnerships so that we could locate chairs on the coast and make it something that is more accessible for people.” Tread marks across the sand in Pacific City attest to the increased accessibility afforded by the organization. Photo courtesy David's Chair In the past three years, that has led to eight chairs being placed at locations up and down the Oregon Coast, from Gold Beach to Seaside, with the greatest concentration, four, in Tillamook County. Kallevig was hired a year and a half ago to help manage maintenance for the coastal chairs, while the nonprofit partners with different groups in each community to handle operations and the costs associated with the chairs. “Every one of our locations is just a little different community relationship,” Kallevig said.In Tillamook County, three of the four chairs have their $7,000 in annual costs covered by the Tillamook Coast Visitor’s Association (TCVA) using transient lodging tax dollars, while the costs for the fourth are covered by the City of Rockaway Beach.Rockaway Beach’s chair is housed at Saint Mary by the Sea Catholic Church, with the city’s park and beach cleanup volunteers managing its lending. The chair in Manzanita is housed at the visitor’s center, with a group of volunteers overseeing borrowing.In Pacific City, the chair is housed in a small enclosure at the rear of the PC Pour wine bar, with another group of volunteers handling operations.Tillamook’s final chair is hosted at Happy Camp Hideaway in Netarts, where owners Bruce and Teresa Lovelin house and manage the chair, with Kallevig praising their commitment to accessibility. “You have a great partnership just out of the goodness of their heart,” Kallevig said. “They wanted to be able to provide this and are excited about it provides access.”Other chairs on the Oregon Coast are in Seaside housed at the Elks Lodge, Newport at Don and Ann Davis Park, Florence at Heceta Beach County Park, Gold Beach and a tow-and-go chair in Coos Bay.The original tow-and-go chairs based outside of Medford are still available, as are static chairs in Westport, WA, at Eugene’s Mount Pisgah Arboretum, Lithia Park in Ashland, Reno, NV, 10 Mile Ranch in Huntsville, TX and at the Kuchel Visitor Center at Redwood National Park in Orick, CA.More information can be found and reservations made at davidschair.org. googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('ad-1515727'); });