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Randy K.
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"'Human Forklift' helps feed poor-from his chair"

Canada
male, age 57
married, 4 children
Speaks: english
Joined Jan 1, 2007
What I Want to Do:
Causes:
Activities: learning new things, Surfing the internet, surveys, online games, fishing, camping, collectibles, volunteering, Listening to Music, cooking


 
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Joined Jan 1, 2007 Activist Aspirations Casual 
Here for Meeting Friends, Support a Cause 
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Hometown  
Homepage http://http://www.bolt.com/hforklift  
Birthday Jan 01, 1952  
Languages english  
About Me HE DELIVERS: GUARANTEED

'Human Forklift' helps feed poor-from his chair
by Bill Redekop, staff reporter

He`s Mother Teresa with his pirate`s face, delivering food to the poor from his wheelchair. On deliveries, Randy Kotyk barrels down west-end streets with single-minded determination. "They know me down Broadway", he says. "People see me coming and they dodge."

His in-your-face tenacity has also earned him more injuries then a football player. He`s been hit by cars. "He also got nicked by a snow grader while he was cleaning the sidewalk both wheelchair and grader made it through without a scratch," says Randy with a hardy laugh.

Last month, Kotyk was mugged. It was midday,around young street and Sargent Avenue. Two kids hit him in the back of the head with rocks and took off with his food bank deliveries. "He was really mad," says Ron Dunsmore, another volunteer at the West Broadway food bank. But he won`t stop.

It was summer of 1963. Kotyk was a 10- year- old kid sitting in the grandstands at the old Brooklands Speedway when he was the central figure in a spectacular accident. A stockcar went out of control and jumped the rails. The car sailed into Kotyk and his cousin. His cousin`s leg was crushed and later removed. Kotyk`s leg was severed.

Kotyk also punctured a lung, lost several ribs and had internal injures. The trama erased most of his memory. Kotyk says his first clear memory today is of the stockcar coming for him. "I saw my leg hopping away the nerves were still alive. He had an artificial leg up until about twenty years ago but wore out what was his good leg, and wound up in a wheelchair. "I extended myself too much", he says.

His volunteerism started nine years ago when he began slinging boxes for Winnipeg Harvest. Where he earned the nickname "the Human Forklift". He was known to work shifts up to 19 hours. He would push to Winnipeg Harvest every morning from his downtown apartment when they were on Provenche rain or sunshine, he pushed everyday. When Harvest moved to the northend, he took his act to west Broadway foodbank in All Saints Anglican Church at Broadway and Osborne street. He picks up food for his shuttin friends. He doesn`t waste any food at home either. "Whatever I can`t use I save for others," he says.

Kotyk has a gruff exterior, and isn`t one to mince words. He helps others, "because I care. These people have got to get food somehow."

"The only time shuttins get food delivered to them is at Christmas by the Christmas CheerBoard," he says. Last week, he delivered food to a woman at 3 a.m. "We`ve got nothing to do. What do disabled people have to do?"

He has complaints about how people treat those in wheelchairs. "A lot of people think if you`re in a wheelchair that your crazy. NUTS! They don`t know we have intelligence, too."

He hasn`t held a job since he landed in a wheelchair about 14 years ago. Before that, with an artificial leg, he held jobs as a security and a cook. He says people in wheelchairs have to be content with paperwork or on computers to find work. That`s not his strength. He`s a physical guy who wants to do physical work. He can work warehouse. "I can do a heck of alot of heavy lifting. But no one will look at you in a wheelchair." Meanwhile, he`s undergone a massive weight reduction plan this year, dropping from 270 pounds to 190.

"I`m proving to myself and others that once we put our minds to anything we go ahead and do it."

I recently as of January 16th of 1997 quit smoking after 35 years and told that I was a diabetic. But I keep Going Going and Going.....


CITY`S 'ROBIN HOOD' PUSHES FOR THE PEOPLE
Have Chair,Will Travel Written By: Bill Redekop

RANDY KOTYK propels his wheelchair down Winnipeg`s wintry streets, pounding over snow ruts, curbs, juts of ice. Down Colony street. Down Portage Avenue. Down Home street. "Kim!" he shouts in front of one house, parked at the foot of the stairs. "Kim!" he shouts again into the frigid air. A young blind woman emerges. She`s beaming Kotyk`s got pasta, potatoes, rutabagas, milk and bread, food he`s collected for her from the West Broadway foodbank.

Then he`s off again, Robin HOOD in a wheelchair, bulldozing down west-end streets to deliver food to the needy. "This is a one-in-million kind of a guy", says client Bev Wight, never taking her eyes off Kotyk. Wight`s disability renders her arms unable to lift even a loaf of bread.

"The people who can`t make it down to the food bank are the ones I deliver to" says Kotyk, 45. There`s no organization behind him. He started making deliveries on his own when he realized food banks don`t deliver. Shuttin`s are expected to take cabs down to pick up food.

Kotyk picks up the food takes them home, then puts together food hampers. He delivers food hampers to at least 100 shuttin`s in the winter and 50 in the summer. He doesn`t stop there. Sometimes he cleans, cooks, and shovels snow for his shuttin`s. He regularly checks up on a woman with multiple sclerosis to keep her company.

Pushing seems a metaphor for his life. Eight years ago he was couped up alone in St.Vital apartment. It was winter and he couldn`t get out because the sidewalks weren`t plowed. His thoughts drifted to suicide. Then he started to push. Today he has an apartment downtown, and can get out on sidewalks or roads in all kinds of weather. If he isn`t pounding down streets with a food hamper he`s pushing to see his girl friend.

Kotyk gets around better then most in wheelchairs because he has partial use of one leg. He lifts the front wheels and churns the back wheels with his massive arms. He`s very proficient. Even in winter, it takes a fast jog to keep up. He laughs a throaty, pirate-like laugh when someone tries to keep pace.

The rest of this info is written by me:
In 1996 I was honored to receive
the 1996 VOLUNTEER AWARD MEDAL & CERTIFICATE OF HONOR from the
CANADIAN GOVERNMENT .The only independant to win that award for that year.
In 2000 I started an org. called KDS
Delivery & stepped down to allow others to look after the 250 people I delivered to.
In 2005 I started to fix up used computers to give to the disabled &
senior shut-ins that I delivered food to,so they would have something to do to keep occupied in the those days that are hard for them to get around.This way people can stay in touch with thier friends as well as surf to thier hearts content.
  Introduce yourself to Randy
  Lifestyle
Pets One dog and two cats  
Activist Aspirations Casual
Political Leaning
Religions  
Eating Habits  
Wild Fact About Me
My Philosophy
What Gives Me Hope
If I were Mayor, I'd make the world a better place by
What/who changed my life and why
What Bugs Me intolerance, indifference, injustice, liars, The destruction of rural areas, People that only care about themselves, people who steal and harm others, people who rape, people who don't "listen", Evil people, Drunk Drivers, People whom do harm unto others, hate, cruelt  
Passions GOD, children, my friends, my wife and family, laughter, family, environment, music, love, learning, Energy Healing And Love, nature, water, trees, earth, making a difference, helping people and animals  
Inspirations  
What Scares Me people that don`t CARE, political unrest, ignorance, illnesses, Ignorance and evil, hate, abusers, cruel people, war, War - Cruelty - Greed - Indifference, people that don`t care, global warming  
  Favorites
Role Models  
Quotation "GIVE PEACE A CHANCE"
Interests everything interests me, internet, humor, herbs, ecology, helping the Earth and all it consists of, environment, computers, Antiques/collectibles  
Books  
Music all kinds  
Movies  
TV Shows  
Favorite Foods  
Favorite Places  
Can't Live Without etc), friends, music, freedom, laughter, water, sunshine, animals, mostly my wife and kids, hope, nature, god, love  
  Introduce yourself to Randy
 
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