By Brett Boese
The Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN AUSTIN — Despite being in circulation for almost a decade, Mike Duncan's business isn't exactly booming. The fact that the Red Wing man gave away his latest version of Land-A-Hand to an Austin war veteran last week might raise questions of a flawed business model. The reality is Duncan's business is also his passion, finances be damned. After graduating from Lake City's Lincoln High School in 1966, Duncan served four years in the Vietnam War. His entrepreneurial career started in 1992, but it took him a decade to form the idea behind Lend-A-Hand. The small device is strapped to an arm or leg and helps physically challenged people — often injured veterans or stroke victims — to perform up to 25 different activities, such as cooking, raking, golfing and fishing. Just as that idea was getting off the ground, Duncan's wife of 32 years, Patricia, died of pancreatic cancer. She was 50. One of their final conversations together involved Duncan promising his ailing spouse that he'd see Lend-A-Hand become a success. While it remains a financial nightmare — at one time he had 20 credit cards maxed out with three mortgages out on his home — people like Dan Stewart have provided the motivation to keep pressing forward. The Marine, an Austin native who graduated from Hayfield High School in 2003, was seriously injured in 2005 during his third tour in Iraq. An improvised explosive device blew up next to the unarmored Humvee he was driving. Things looked so grim for Stewart that two field hospitals refused to treat him, thinking he was past saving. The 27-year-old credits his fallow Marines with saving his life; they refused medical treatment until their stricken comrade was helped. Stewart was in a coma for 32 days, during which he also suffered a stroke, and underwent a cranioplasty to insert two metal plates into his skull before being released. Seven years later, Stewart is volunteering at St. Edward's Catholic Church in Austin, doing such tasks as raking and mowing with the help of Duncan's Lend-A-Hand. When the Stewart first started volunteering, he didn't even have the stamina to walk around the block. He now takes 10-mile jaunts around town that last around three hours. "The first time I saw Dan mow, his smile was so happy," said MaryAnn Lynch, an Austin resident who helped Duncan and Stewart connect in late 2009. "He was smiling from ear to ear." Such success stories compel Duncan, who put 60,000 miles on his car in 2010 trying to market the Lend-A-Hand to the 63 million physically challenged people in the United States. It's currently being sold in Red Wing, Lake City, Zumbrota and at Mayo Clinic's retail store in Rochester — plus various other shops throughout the country, but mainstream stores have almost universally rejected it. "I'll tell you what, I've had so many doors slammed in my face that my nose is flat, and I've got a flat rear end from being kicked out on my butt so many times," Duncan said. "But (my wife) stuck with me to the end. She believed in me. I want to do this in her memory." People like Dan "are what's changed me," Duncan said. "I hear all their stories, and it's really humbled me. It's an honor for me to know people like MaryAnn and Dan." That change goes both ways, as Duncan's initial client remains his most ardent supporter. Sue Seeger of Lake City suffered a stroke when she was just 20. She's spent time traveling the country with Duncan, explaining the Lend-A-Hand's benefits. She also wrote the testimonial on Duncan's flier. "This device has given me my life back," she wrote. "I feel like a whole person again instead of feeling like I only have one good side left. I am grateful to have this product, and I know it can help other people with physical challenges."
For more information, or to order, please visit:
Or call us at 651-345-GOLF(4653)
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Showing posts with label help. Show all posts
Showing posts with label help. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Lend-A-Hand in the News - Red Wing
Another great article recently published about the Lend-A-Hand:
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Lend-A-Hand in the Mankato Free Press
New Meaning to the Words, "Helping Hand"
Lend-a-Hand device works wonders
By Tanner Kent
The Free Press
Lend-A-Hand® is a patent pending assistant device. Once put on, it increases mobility while decreasing the strain off the individuals shoulders, arms, back and legs. Lend-A-Hand helps allow the individual to play golf, wash cars, paint, rake, sweep and wash floors, go fishing and other activities and duties.
For more information, or to order, please visit:
http://www.evenparenterprises.com/
Or call us at 651-345-GOLF(4653)
MANKATO — Neil Schalke and Dan Stewart have much in common. Both are Marines. Both served in Iraq. Both bear visible scars of war and both worried their disabilities would never allow them to enjoy their favorite pastime again. Now, both have Mike Duncan to thank the next time they go fishing.
“It’ll be good,” said Schalke after trying on the device that will give back at least one piece of the life he nearly lost six years ago in Iraq. “It’s probably been three years,” since he last went fishing, he said.
“It’ll be good,” said Schalke after trying on the device that will give back at least one piece of the life he nearly lost six years ago in Iraq. “It’s probably been three years,” since he last went fishing, he said.
Schalke, a Wisconsin native, is a Minnesota State University student whose hands were severely injured in the fall of 2004 when a roadside explosive tore through his Humvee near Fallujah, Iraq.
More than a dozen surgeries were performed on his hands in the ensuing years. On his right hand, two fingers are missing; his left, though intact, has no feeling and little functionality. To this day, pieces of shrapnel will periodically work their way to the surface of his skin.
Stewart, who hails from Austin, suffered even more serious injuries when he was struck by shrapnel from a roadside explosive in 2005. He spent 32 days in a coma, had two metal plates inserted in his skull and suffered arm injuries due to blood clots that developed during his coma.
Several months ago, Stewart met Duncan for the first time. Duncan, a Lake City man who describes himself as a problem-solver, gave him a device he invented called Lend-a-Hand. The pseudo-prosthetic limb allowed Stewart to regain the ability to perform a variety of tasks, from shoveling snow to mowing grass to wetting a line.
Schalke, however, met Duncan for the first time on Thursday with help from a mutual contact. Stewart traveled to the meeting with Duncan, as well as Sue Seeger, who suffered a stroke at age 20 and inspired Duncan to create the Lend-a-Hand eight years ago when she shared her dream of playing golf despite being paralyzed on her right side.
“Eight years ago, it was a dead arm,” she said, adding that she now hits a golf ball 150 yards, and straight. “Now, I have all this range of motion.”
The meeting between Duncan and Schalke was set up by Pat Dotter, a representative of the Procurement Technical Assistance Center — which is, essentially, a federal program that helps small businesses to get government contracts.
Duncan had contacted Dotter a few months ago to help make his product available to veterans and military hospitals. Dotter also knew Schalke and said she immediately recognized how Duncan’s invention could improve his life.
“The thing that sold me on the product was seeing the excitement on Neil’s face when I told him he could fish again,” Dotter said. “That’s the perk of what I do.”
More than a dozen surgeries were performed on his hands in the ensuing years. On his right hand, two fingers are missing; his left, though intact, has no feeling and little functionality. To this day, pieces of shrapnel will periodically work their way to the surface of his skin.
Stewart, who hails from Austin, suffered even more serious injuries when he was struck by shrapnel from a roadside explosive in 2005. He spent 32 days in a coma, had two metal plates inserted in his skull and suffered arm injuries due to blood clots that developed during his coma.
Several months ago, Stewart met Duncan for the first time. Duncan, a Lake City man who describes himself as a problem-solver, gave him a device he invented called Lend-a-Hand. The pseudo-prosthetic limb allowed Stewart to regain the ability to perform a variety of tasks, from shoveling snow to mowing grass to wetting a line.
Schalke, however, met Duncan for the first time on Thursday with help from a mutual contact. Stewart traveled to the meeting with Duncan, as well as Sue Seeger, who suffered a stroke at age 20 and inspired Duncan to create the Lend-a-Hand eight years ago when she shared her dream of playing golf despite being paralyzed on her right side.
“Eight years ago, it was a dead arm,” she said, adding that she now hits a golf ball 150 yards, and straight. “Now, I have all this range of motion.”
The meeting between Duncan and Schalke was set up by Pat Dotter, a representative of the Procurement Technical Assistance Center — which is, essentially, a federal program that helps small businesses to get government contracts.
Duncan had contacted Dotter a few months ago to help make his product available to veterans and military hospitals. Dotter also knew Schalke and said she immediately recognized how Duncan’s invention could improve his life.
“The thing that sold me on the product was seeing the excitement on Neil’s face when I told him he could fish again,” Dotter said. “That’s the perk of what I do.”
Lend-a-Hand attaches to a user’s non-functional arm or wrist. It stabilizes the arm and includes a long pocket in which anything with a handle can be inserted — including a fishing pole.
After designing the prototype eight years ago for Seeger, Duncan spent the next several years traveling with stroke victims, amputees, cerebral palsy sufferers and others to make modifications. He added grooves to the fasteners so users could tighten them with their teeth. He added color to one side of the device so those with head injuries or vision impairments could tell which side was supposed to face forward. He’s also made attachments for the device, including one that allows users to fire a 10-gauge shotgun so they can hunt.
Duncan describes himself as a problem-solver and scoffs at the notion that his inventions are due to intellect. Instead, he credits God and wife for inspiration (even though the latter died eight years ago from cancer) and said he’s lived an “interesting and exciting life,” from starting a junior bowling league in Lake City when he was a teenager to starting a band and playing music across the country.
But none of that, he said, compares to the sense of accomplishment he feels when people like Schalke are given a piece of their life back. “For an old guy like me, it’s exciting,” he said. “I’ve never designed a product that has affected so many people.”
After designing the prototype eight years ago for Seeger, Duncan spent the next several years traveling with stroke victims, amputees, cerebral palsy sufferers and others to make modifications. He added grooves to the fasteners so users could tighten them with their teeth. He added color to one side of the device so those with head injuries or vision impairments could tell which side was supposed to face forward. He’s also made attachments for the device, including one that allows users to fire a 10-gauge shotgun so they can hunt.
Duncan describes himself as a problem-solver and scoffs at the notion that his inventions are due to intellect. Instead, he credits God and wife for inspiration (even though the latter died eight years ago from cancer) and said he’s lived an “interesting and exciting life,” from starting a junior bowling league in Lake City when he was a teenager to starting a band and playing music across the country.
But none of that, he said, compares to the sense of accomplishment he feels when people like Schalke are given a piece of their life back. “For an old guy like me, it’s exciting,” he said. “I’ve never designed a product that has affected so many people.”
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| Neil Schalke (left), an MSU student and Purple Heart recipient, received a device Thursday that would finally allow him to fish despite extensive injuries to his hands. The device was invented by Mike Duncan (right), a Lake City man who has invented several other contraptions. “There is life for these people,” he said. |
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Mike Duncan’s Lend-a-Hand invention allows those with
arm, wrist and hand disabilities to regain several abilities,
including shoveling, cooking, raking — and fishing.
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Lend-A-Hand® is a patent pending assistant device. Once put on, it increases mobility while decreasing the strain off the individuals shoulders, arms, back and legs. Lend-A-Hand helps allow the individual to play golf, wash cars, paint, rake, sweep and wash floors, go fishing and other activities and duties.
For more information, or to order, please visit:
http://www.evenparenterprises.com/
Or call us at 651-345-GOLF(4653)
The Lend-A-Hand
As I observed her swinging capabilities, I was able to develop the concept for Lend–A–Hand. While wearing Lend–A–Hand she is able to play golf using only her left arm. From this experience I was able to find many additional uses for physically challenged and able bodied individuals. I have found Lend–A–Hand to help people with arthritis, carpal tunnel, stroke, cerebral palsy and amputees to name a few.
Lend-A-Hand® is a patent pending assistant device. Once put on, it increases mobility while decreasing the strain off the individuals shoulders, arms, back and legs. Lend-A-Hand helps allow the individual to play golf, wash cars, paint, rake, sweep and wash floors, go fishing and other activities and duties.
For more information, or to order, please visit:
Or call us at 651-345-GOLF(4653)
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