Volunteer Awards

Mobility Worldwide introduced the winners of the Golden Sprocket Leadership award and the Hall of Fame inductee ceremony at its annual conference in Pella, IA September 28-30, 2023.

2023 Golden Sprocket Leadership Award

The Golden Sprocket Leadership Award is designated as Mobility Worldwide’s most prestigious annual award which is to be bestowed upon a volunteer who best exemplifies exceptional leadership qualities at the local, national, and international level.

Our honoree is currently the longest active volunteer at Penney Farms since 2001. He was the lead of three floor supervisors until the end of 2022.  He oversaw every aspect of production from painting, making the various wooden parts from patterns, the assembly, testing and packing of the cart for shipment overseas. During Covid, Penney Farms had the daunting task of producing 98 carts in just 30 days to make their 2020 goal of 800.  Amazingly, our honoree planned and helped Penney Farms meet their goal even with Covid protocols in place.  He is a gentle man who can form teams and motivate people through his passion and enthusiasm.  He personally led Penney Farms in making their goal of 800 plus Mobility Worldwide carts for many years, over 14,000 since 2001. He not only leads by example but also looks out for the personal needs of others. His energy, leadership, and wise counsel to the MW-PET project have helped lead a grateful Penney Farms shop. Over the last 22 years, he has selflessly given of both his time and talents building carts that have gone to 45 countries.  Our winner is 95 years young, and his name is… Sid Rooy.

2022 Golden Sprocket Leadership Award Winner:
Roger Hofmeister, a retired physician and an affiliate volunteer from Columbia, MO.

2023 Hall of Fame Inductees

The Hall of Fame is Mobility Worldwide’s way of memorializing the efforts of the organizations of key players who were instrumental to the organization’s planning, design, and development.  Inductees may include volunteers, staff, or others outside the organization whose diligent efforts helped build Mobility Worldwide into an internationally recognized Christian humanitarian organization.

Kathy Maynard.  Kathy was the right hand of Mel West in the early days and was the first secretary/treasurer of the PET Project.  She was a volunteer who became our very first employee.  She is an active volunteer with our national organization as well as her home shop of Columbia.  If any of us have any questions about our origins or how things run we call Kathy.

Roger Hofmeister.  Since Roger won the Golden Sprocket last year, he had to wait until this year for his entrance into the Hall of Fame.  Roger was one of the first volunteers to work in Mel’s garage building carts and he helped create our organization.  He has served on the Columbia and International Boards and led our first Medical Advisory Team.

Ray Truhn.  Ray helped begin our international organization.  He has been instrumental in his work with drawings and standardization.  Ray has served as an advisor to our International Board for many years.

Dale Dykema.  Dale has been very active in his home shop in Holland and has served on the International Board.  He has often served as a medical advisor to the Board, in particular he helped us make some decisions during Covid.  Dale is an active fundraiser for Mobility and has been on many distributions.  He is always the consummate Mobility Worldwide promoter.

Jim Conn.  The best way to describe Jim is “leader”.  He led his local board in Minneapolis and served as Chair of the international Board for many years.  Jim hired our first full-time Executive Director and fought the good fight, standardization.  He was an amazing leader and sometimes I say to myself, “What would Jim do?”

Rodger Keene.  Rodger and his wife Susan were the first people to greet me and talk to me at my first Mobility Worldwide conference.  He was certainly an inspirational person, but I would just describe him as a sweetheart.  He served on his local board in N. Alabama, on the International Board and was the Treasurer of the International Board.

John Kustron.  John leveraged his membership with the Lions Club as a model for others to emulate.  His small crew of dedicated volunteers produced over 400 Mobility Carts over a 15-year time frame.  They raised over $120,000, 95% of which came from Lions.  John has shared the message of the Mobility Cart with shop visits of senior Lion leadership and is a great help to Partners for World Health.

2022 Hall of Fame Inductees:

• Mel West, original founder of the organization
• Larry Hills, original founder of the organization
• Earl Miner, original founder of the organization
• Steve Baima, first volunteer Executive Director
• Barbara Chase, founder of Penney Farms affiliate
• Kirby & Christine Goering, helped developed the national organization and perfected the first Mobility Cart
• Yvonne Vinkemulder, legal counselor and helped developed the national organization
• Jim Wrinkle, leadership role on the board of trustees
• Rob Fleming, helped develop the national organization through his guidance
• Walt Hays, build awareness of Mobility Worldwide through the Lions Clubs
• Delbert & Sandy Groves, managed the organization and recipients of many of the first carts and established the first affiliate abroad (Zambia)
• Mark Richard, connected Mobility Worldwide to distribution partners during the founding of the organization
• Gary Moreau, executive director of the Columbia, MO affiliate and consultant to other affiliates