As part of the Richardson, Texas Stake “Fall into Service” campaign, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints living in Garland rolled up their sleeves and went to work to help members of the community.
Partnering with the Texas Ramp Project, men from the Garland 3rd Ward built two of the seven wheelchair ramps constructed Saturday, Oct. 14. The ramps are for the disabled and financially needy. Work began early in the morning and ended by noon.
TRP arranges for volunteers for two Saturdays of each month. Their goal is to assemble five ramps per organized Saturday.
Portions of each ramp are pre-constructed and brought to the destination site along with other materials – such as plywood, boards, electric power saws, hand tools, and fasteners, such as screws and carriage bolts. Volunteers are asked to bring battery operated hand drills.
Ken Taylor, a member of the Garland 3rd Ward explained, “To some extent, on-site assembly is cut-and-fit since all locations require some degree of adaptation for the ramp to fit and work beautifully.” And smiling added, “Which ours did, of course.”
Derrick Lewis, also from the LDS Church in Garland, had this to say, “We didn’t get to meet personally the beneficiary of our ramp, but we could feel that this would truly make a difference in their life. This is a project that I would gladly volunteer for again and again!”
In 1985 members of the Kiwanis Club of Richardson were asked to build a wheelchair ramp for a friend. This effort eventually turned into the Texas Ramp Project. Around 1990, as requests for more ramps came in, the project conducted research at local hospitals and rehab centers to determine the actual need for safe wheelchair ramps. Over time a system was developed that addressed all the major challenges.
Since the initial Ramp was built in 1985 The Dallas Ramp Project has constructed 13,558 ramps totaling 67.590 miles of ramping.
For information on volunteering with The Dallas Ramp Project go to www.texasramp.org.