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	Podcast:		Business Beat
	Episode:		Business Beat - PET International reaches an exciting 2015 milestone
	Category:		Government & Organizations
	Duration:		00:03:43
	Publish Date:		2015-10-07 16:44:00
	Description:		Personal Energy Transportation International, or PET, built its first rough-terrain transportation device for people with leg disabilities 21 years ago. With 25 affiliate workshops around the country today, the international organization reached the milestone of 50,000 PETs this year. Mel West is a 91-year-old pastor and an antipoverty activist. In 1994, he met Larry Hills, a Methodist missionary who told West about polio and land mine survivors he was helping aide in Zaire, Africa. “As we parted he said, ‘Mel, I need one more thing,’” West said. “’A three wheeled, hand-cranked, sturdily built wheelchair with hauling capacity that will go on those rough trails and roads over in Zaire.’” West partnered with friend and product designer Earl Miner and after months of work in West’s garage, they sent four prototypes to be tested in Zaire. The success of these models led to the founding of the PET project in Columbia. Today, PET International oversees 26 affiliate workshops in the United
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