RETIRED schoolteacher – 83-year-old Brother Thomas Oliver (Olly) Pickett AM who has devoted his life serving the community – has taken out 2025 WA Senior Australian of the Year.
Brother Pickett described the announcement as one of the highlights of his life. “I am still trying to come down to earth. There are a lot of amazing people doing amazing things and I was very surprised to win this award.” Brother Pickett has volunteered every day, form Monday to Saturday, for the past 27 years, at Wheelchairs For Kids Australia, based in Wangara, near Wanneroo.
Brother Pickett co-founded Wheelchairs For Kids in 1996 to provide adjustable wheelchairs and occupational therapy expertise for children in developing countries, free of charge. He began building wheelchairs after being approached by the Rotary Club of Scarborough. At that time, he was spending time teaching kids, who had dropped out of school, in a welding workshop.
Since then, more than 60,000 custom-built wheelchairs have been gifted to children in over 80 countries.
“It has been so wonderful providing these wheelchairs to some of the world’s most disadvantaged children. Without the wheelchairs, children in poorer countries are often left on the ground, waiting for help. These wheelchairs have helped thousands of children go to school, play with their friends and lead a more fulfilling life. I have seen the smiles on the faces of so many kids and it has all been worth it. In turn, the volunteering has been life-giving to me, and I have led an active, long life, so far!”
Wheelchairs, transforming lives since 1998, is based in Wangara, Perth, Western Australia. It has 250 regular workshop volunteers. A further 350 people from aged care and community groups sew covers for wheelchair soft supports, and crochet rugs and soft toys.
Wheelchairs don’t just provide mobility. They provide lifelong empowerment through access to education, better health outcomes and increased social connections — all those basic building blocks of a life that many take for granted. At Wheelchairs For Kids, we’re proud to have given the life-changing gift of mobility to 60,000 children in over 80 countries, granting the world’s most vulnerable children a renewed sense of dignity, hope and independence. The wheelchairs have changed the lives of children and their families in many of the world’s poorest places such as Cambodia, Iraq, Mongolia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, The Philippines, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Zambia, Malawi, Kenya, Morocco, Syria, Tanzania, Congo, Zimbabwe, Timor Leste, Indonesia, Vietnam and many Pacific Island countries including Fiji.
Built to World Health Organization guidelines, wheelchairs are purpose-designed to withstand regular use in the rugged terrain and uneven surfaces common in the developing world — opening up a life-changing level of mobility and accessibility that would be impossible with a regular wheelchair.
Wheelchair ‘The Adjusta’ production is a truly remarkable story of Aussie know-how and precision engineering, focusing on lightweight wheelchairs from aluminium components and thoughtful gifts (toys and blankets), including partner agencies and experts which fit wheelchairs to users professionally, on location. Many children, needing wheelchairs, suffer from cerebral palsy and need fittings to be tailored to their bodies. It works with some of the world’s largest NGOs including World Vision and various rotary clubs. The wheelchair is in its ninth model and is made to World Health Organisation (WHO) standards. It is a study, all-terrain wheelchair that is very practical, built entirely in the organisation’s own fit-for-purpose factory, in Wangara.
Portable, lightweight and adjustable to each child’s size, with about 300 wheelchairs every month at between $280 and $300 per chair, depending on required extra supports, we follow a stringent production process — from cutting, bending and drilling the aluminium frame to fitting the brake modules and testing to ensure wheelchair compliance with World Health Organization guidelines. As a finishing touch, the wheelchairs include knitted blankets and toys made by volunteers to ensure absolute comfort.
