About P.E.T. Florida

Why Our Name

Hopefully, the fact that we show our name as an acronym is a clue that we don’t really deal in dogs and cats.  Our name was coined by our founders back in the 90’s who wanted a short and easy one to convey our mission of mobility. Thus P.E.T. was chosen as an abbreviation of Personal Energy Transportaton.  That’s what we deliver free to our recipients in the form of our unique vehicle, which itself is often referred to as a cart, and more recently, a handcycle.

OUR HISTORY

The roots of our story can be traced back to the African country of Zaire, where missionary Larry Hills had become increasingly aware of so many people of all ages unable to walk there.  The reasons included birth defects, polio, land mines, and accidents. So often the resulting disability meant not just the challenges of everyday getting around – but often it carried isolation and discrimination, as well.  Larry’s awareness of this peaked one day when he nearly stepped on a woman carrying a baby on her back.  They had been struggling along for several hours at that point.  It was then that Larry contacted Mel West, the pastor of his supporting church in Columbia, Missouri to share his concern and his growing vision to meet the need.  Mel then enlisted the aid of an experienced mechanical engineer, Earl Miner, to develop a hand-driven vehicle that would work where conventional wheelchairs didn’t. Like any good R&D beginning, it took a few tries to get the design right, but it came, resulting in the formation of the first handcycle production facility to make more — eventually a whole lot more over the years that followed.

Mel West

Our story moves on from there to the arrival of Larry Hills and his wife Laura here at the Penney Retirement Community (PRC) in 2000. Because former farmer and missionary Larry wasn’t inclined to rocking chair life, he soon decided to try his hand at putting together Earl’s invention himself here in his garage.  Then, not long after, fellow missionary Sid Rooy and others joined in, and P.E.T. Florida was officially underway to become the second assembly facility to produce Larry’s dream. That was 2001, and from there, the shop moved from his garage to a former service station nearby — and finally to its own building on the grounds of PRC. This location has proved to be a strong advantage in recruiting volunteers (PRC residents make up a large percentage of the labor force in our shop).  Larry passed away in 2020, but his legacy lives on.  Since the day he completed that first handcycle here at Penney Farms, more than 15,500 have followed to bless disabled recipients all over the world.

CELEBRATION AT P.E.T. FLORIDA SHOP AS NEW POWDER COATING FACILITY IS OPENED (FUNDED BY LOCAL ROTARY CLUBS)

WHAT IS MOBILITY WORLDWIDE?

You will sometimes see this name associated with us:  Mobility Worldwide.  So what’s our name — is it that or P.E.T. Florida?  Since the first shop was set up to make handcycles back in 1994, other production affiliates have sprung up across the U.S. and now in Africa.  In 2001, we became the second.  As the number of these independent shops were added, it became necessary to form a networking arrangement to assure adherence to engineering and production standards and provide support services. That entity, established in Columbia Missouri, serves us well. Think of Mobility Worldwide as an umbrella entity covering all of the cooperating affiliates involved.  So our best answer to the question of who we are – we’re P.E.T. Florida, affiliated with Mobility Worldwide.

OUR MISSION

PET Florida’s mission is three-fold:

P.E.T. Florida - Penney Farms LLC is a 501(c) Non-Profit Organization