Charchan uses surprise inheritance to fund PT scholarships

SANDPOINT — Fall down seven times, get up eight. So goes the Japanese proverb and it sounds very good in the abstract. But for those who have been stricken down by injury or illness, the getting up part can be a mountainous climb.

Sandpoint’s Steve Charchan knows how tough the journey can be. Since 2001, a string of surgeries for degenerative joint disease and complications from those procedures has required him to struggle from a hospital bed into a wheelchair to a walker and then a cane.

He knows all about being knocked flat and even more about how difficult it can be to get back up again.

“I’ve had to do that four times,” Charchan said. “There was a lot of heavy duty stuff that I had to ask God to help me through.”

His primary helpers, however, were revealed in human form — the physical and occupational therapists who inched him slowly along as he recovered from bouts of surgery on his neck and back.

“I’ve had a lot of assistance and love and care from PTs and OTs,” he said. “These are good people who work in the background. They don’t make a lot of noise; they’re just out there doing good work.”

Two years ago, Charchan came into a surprise inheritance. It was, by his own description, “a large sum of money.”

If the windfall had come his way a few decades earlier, he said, it would have been wasted on frivolities. “Booze and broads” to be exact.

Crippling disease and the helping hands that helped him fight it, however, sparked a different vision for how to invest the money.

“I felt it was payback time,” Charchan said. “So I started a scholarship to help students who go into physical and occupational therapy.”

His focus has been local and one of the beneficiaries of the program is Caribou Physical Therapy in Ponderay, where Charchan received treatment. Three Caribou employees are going to school with his scholarship money.

“I think what he’s doing is huge,” said owner Paula Lund. “Most people don’t have help through PT school. When I graduated in 1992, I owed $40,000. Nowadays, kids are getting out of school and they have $100,000 in student loan debts.”

The high cost of education for physical and occupational therapists almost chased one local student out of the field until Charchan stepped in with a scholarship. The young woman will complete her schooling next month, Lund pointed out, going right to work in her business.

“When she graduates, she’s going to have a wonderful, viable profession,” Lund said. “What Steve is giving these kids is more than an opportunity — he’s giving them the rest of their lives.”

Along with the graduating therapist, the fund also is supporting the education of a physical therapist’s assistant and two students who are pursuing separate doctorate degrees in physical and occupational therapy. The criteria are that they choose to work in North Idaho and maintain a high grade-point-average.

“The higher the GPA, the higher the reimbursement,” Charchan said. “I make them earn it — this is no free deal. They turn in official transcripts and, based on those, they get reimbursed on a sliding scale.

“The cheapest amount I’ve ever paid is 75 percent, but it’s usually a lot more than that,” he added. “Two of my students have 3.94 GPAs — in graduate programs.”

The therapists who rebuilt Steve Charchan — helped him up after every fall — did more than heal his body. They lifted his spirit, he said, and gave him the will to get back on his feet. Tim Totten, a certified occupational therapist’s assistant at Life Care of Sandpoint, was one of those people.

“That guy saved my life,” Charchan said. “I got extremely depressed because it was such a rough go. I looked forward to seeing him because he was such a screwball and he made me laugh. I needed that more than anything else at the time.”

Totten said the technique is known as “therapeutic use of self” and that it is an important part of the healing process.

“I use humor with 90 percent of my patients so they can think about something other than that broken bone or the stroke or lower-extremity amputation,” he said. “I try to get them laughing and then, by gosh, to get them home.”

According to Totten, the scholarship program put in place by his former patient answers a need for graduates in his profession.

“Nationally and here in the Northwest, there’s a shortage of therapists, but there’s no shortage of work,” he said. “What Steve is doing is facilitating students who really want to become therapists so they can do the kinds of things I was able to do for him. It’s a godsend. It’s beautiful.”

In response to that need, as well as the number of interested scholarship applicants, Charchan this year formed a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization called Heavenly Helping Hands to broaden the program’s reach. He thinks that the positive impact therapists have made on the lives of local families will be remembered and rewarded as residents of Bonner and Boundary counties learn about the fund and chip in to support it with their tax-deductible donations.

“This is a priceless investment in people who want to do good,” he said. “I call it the ‘re-invest in you scholarship program,’ because the people who donate are making an investment in their own county and their own community.

“These students are going to come back to work in the community and benefit everyone who lives here.”

Charchan plans to keep the same iron grip on administering the non-profit fund as he uses when giving financial support based on academic performance. Along with putting his own money into the fund, Charchan, a retired accountant and career Navy man, will oversee a volunteer staff — including himself.

“I’m a frugal guy,” he said with a no-nonsense accent rooted in a New York City upbringing. “There are no administration fees. One of the things I’m guaranteeing to the public is that 100 percent of the money will go to tuition and books. I’m not paying any salaries.”

Charchan said he was never tempted to upscale his lifestyle when good fortune — though he calls it divine intervention — brought the unexpected inheritance his way.

“I already had my fun,” he said, readjusting his position on the seat of his walker. “I’ve already been through the part of my life that was about wasting money, so now was the time to start this.

“I think the American people are ready for ideas like this, because they’re tired of wasting money on things that just go down the drain,” he added. “This is about people being willing to work together to put their money and their backing behind somebody and say, ‘We want you to achieve your goal.’ The students are already out there in Bonner and Boundary County. If we can get more money, we can help more of them get through school.”

For information on the scholarship fund for physical and occupational therapy students, write stevencharchan@gmail.com or call 263-7754.