It started off in one man’s garage and has now to turned into midsized operation in a warehouse. Thousands of wheelchairs, modified mobile child seats and motorized carts have left Rock Hill, South Carolina over the past few years and ended up assisting the needy in the villages of Bolivia, Peru and elsewhere.

“We make happiness,” said retiree Dick Klaus, a volunteer with the Westminster Presbyterian Church Wheelchair Ministry.

“We take whatever is given to us, donated, or found,” founded Ron Bloomingdale said, such as a walker without wheels. Chairs with worn seats. “We’ll find what we need to make it work again.”

Members of the company included a retired foreign aid worker, a retired druggist, a carpenter, a salesman, a real estate seller and more.

“I know what a chair means to somebody,” says one volunteer. “Freedom.”

Many of us fear our retirement years, as if we’ll cease to exist because of our lack of work identity. But remember, people like this, who feel productive, happy and are truly contributing to the world around them.