I can appreciate health issues that may make "pull starting" more difficult. Again I will stress the point, that if equipment is properly maintained, starting problems are far less likely. Briggs & Stratton engines only require the flywheel to spin at 250 rpm to enable the coil to fire the spark plug, I believe Honda may be slightly less. That does not require a "ton" of energy from an arm or shoulder. If the equipment requires more than 2 or 3 pulls to start, then something is not right. Be it with the equipment itself, or the owner not following the correct starting procedure.
All of that being said, In my opinion, if you do not see the problem with hooking that thing up to a chainsaw, then a chainsaw should not be in your tool shed. That is dangerous. A saw having a chain break is irrelevant. The repetitive motion involved in jerking the pull cord that way could easily cause damage the first time it fires for the person who fails to appropriately hold the unit down with their foot. I am not saying that a number of people wouldn't be able to safely use this, but to me, it appears that this is being marketed to the general public. With that in mind, I feel that it is the responsibility of the person or company that developed it to make sure it is intrinsically safe. This piece of equipment is not. There are plenty of other options for people that need help with starting their equipment. Electric start lawn mowers are very cost effective these days. Not to mention, they work pretty well. I am not a giant fan of MTD, Troy-Bilt, or Craftsman, but they all market that SpeedStart line of equipment. Buy the power drill adapter or the plug-in starter. Then choose equipment from that line that meets your needs. It too works fairly well. It is not very often that I promote homeowner lines of equipment, but something tells me that will be the market that this new "tool" falls in. I can't see anyone who owns a 5-6-700 dollar chainsaw actually hooking that thing up to it.
I have been around a lot of charity work over the last few years. It troubles me to see a "raffle for charity" without mention of the charity. Most of the time I have found that donations are only one part of charity work. Raising awareness is sometimes an even bigger part. With awareness comes attention. Attention leads to donations and publicity. Now sometimes publicity is not desired, and I get that. If you are trying to help a trouble family that you personally know or something else that may require discretion then maybe a note saying so would help. Again I am accusing no one of anything. I am just saying that when throwing yourself out there in this manner, leaving questions like that "open to interpretation" opens the door assumptions.
