Caring Hearts Lending Closet

Caring Hearts Lending Closet accepts donations of used medical equipment for those in need

Karin Kennedy, a member of the congregation at The Blue Church in Springfield, is all smiles as she shows off the large inventory of medical equipment that she has in stock for those in need. The Media resident, a former physical therapist, founded the Caring Hearts Lending Closet as a place where people in the community can donate used medical equipment that they no longer need or use and others in need can come get it. She is pictured in front of commodes, wheelchairs and shower chairs.

By PEG DEGRASSA | pdegrassa@delconewsnetwork.com 

 The Delaware County Daily Times

PUBLISHED: July 18, 2019 at 12:10 a.m. | UPDATED: August 23, 2021 at 10:58 a.m.

Is there anyone who doesn’t have some kind of durable medical equipment lying around their garage, basement or spare room just taking up space? What does one do with the crutches, canes and walkers used at one time to walk after an injury, but no longer needed? Many thrift shops won’t take the items and we feel too guilty to just toss away perfectly good equipment that had cost our insurance companies a pretty penny. Plus, all that easy-come, easy-go tossed away trash is not good for the earth.

On the flip side, there are those in our community who may need a wheelchair for an aging parent or spouse or may be short on cash and not able to purchase needed medical equipment or supplies.

Delaware County now has an answer – the Caring Hearts Lending Closet (CHLC), located in The Blue Church at 940 Baltimore Pike, Springfield. Thanks to the vision of Karin Kennedy of Media, Caring Hearts Lending Closet opened its doors in 2016 and is growing larger every year, as more and more local people discover its value.

Working as a physical therapist in Maryland, Karin Kennedy treated many patients with acute injuries and illnesses. Doctors would order their patients crutches, walkers and other durable medical equipment. The patients would use the items for a short period, get better and no longer need the equipment. She’d also see patients who needed specific medical equipment but couldn’t get it due to cost or insurance issues. Karin wished there was a way to give the no-longer-needed equipment to those who could really use it. The thought never left her head.

After moving back to Delco, Karin was busy raising her two daughters and son. She switched careers, and now works as a data base administrator at Sacred Heart Academy in Bryn Mawr. In her spare time, Karin volunteered at The Transition Town Media’s Free Store at 350 West State St., where people bring items that they no longer want or need and shoppers take the items for free if they have a use for them. The community store is staffed entirely by volunteers. It was at The Free Store where the medical equipment exchange idea came back to the forefront of Karin’s thoughts.

Karin, a seven-year member of The Blue Church, knew that her church had unused space in the basement. She approached her church with the medical exchange idea, a way to hands-on help others in the community. The Caring Hearts Lending Closet was born.