Janet Thomason had a hospital bed to donate. After calling every charity organization she could think of, as well as hospitals and nursing homes, she said she realized what many people in that situation realize: It’s difficult to find someone to accept a hospital bed donation. 

“When my mother passed away I had a hospital bed, and no one would take it,” Thomason said. “Somehow I found Project C.U.R.E., and they picked it up.”

Project C.U.R.E. is headquartered in Denver, but Houston is one of its four national distribution hubs. The organization collects donated medical supplies and equipment and ships them to prescreened clinics in developing countries.

Trained field teams fly to each country to meet directly with doctors and nurses and ensure no supplies end up diverted or resold.

“If a nurse sees something come in the door for her patients, you better believe she’s not going to let it go out the back door,” Thomason said.

Thomason began volunteering with Project C.U.R.E. and learned about its “Kits for Kids” program. The program sends red backpacks filled with first aid supplies to children without access to medical care or drugstores.

As a longtime Katy ISD parent and volunteer, Thomason saw an opportunity to get schools involved.

“We thought with KISD we can put a dent in these [requests for kits],” she said.

Students at participating schools gather supplies and write notes of support on the backpacks. Thomason is now the community outreach and Kits for Kids program director at Project C.U.R.E. She stresses the importance of community involvement, particularly in Katy.

“Katy volunteers have engineering backgrounds [to fix equipment],” she said.

There are also a high percentage of medical workers to help identify donated materials, she said.

The sorting room contains shelves of boxes and bins labeled with sheets of paper indicating ventilator tubing, endoscopy supplies, sterile drapes, skin-cleansing supplies and tens of other supply types.

“We may get a pallet of donated supplies and no idea what’s inside—that’s where our volunteers with medical backgrounds are so helpful,” Thomason said.

Project C.U.R.E. is run almost entirely by volunteers. The Houston distribution center has only one paid employee—a warehouse manager. Everyone else, including Thomason, is a volunteer. The 2014 annual report shows only 2 percent of the budget went toward administrative costs.

The group has earned high ratings for efficiency from GuideStar and Charity Navigator, and Forbes ranked it one of the 20 most efficient large U.S. charities.

Thomason said the distribution center is always in need of volunteers and donations.

“Say you broke your leg and you saved the crutches—all of that can be repurposed. If grandma has an old walker or wheelchair, there are people who can use that,” she said.

8251 Kempwood Drive, Houston 832-251-2489 www.facebook.com/projectcurehouston Donation drop-off: Tue.-Fri. 9 a.m.-2 p.m.