For the past four years, Gatesville has been home to the Texas Ramps Project (TRP), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to providing free wheelchair ramps to low-income older adults and individuals with disabilities.
TRP’s Regional Manager of Coryell County, Jim Hoge, has been involved with the organization since 2018 and has since expanded it to Gatesville in 2021 with hopes to bring in more volunteers and to help locals in need.
In Gatesville, the organization has made a significant impact, serving members of the community who might otherwise struggle to afford the cost of a wheelchair ramp.
The organization is slowly but surely making progress and has already hit an increase in ramp production from building seven ramps in 2023 to building 10-11 ramps in 2024. Hoge hopes to increase that number once again this year.
Each ramp is custom-built to meet the specific needs of the recipient, and the project relies on volunteers and donations to get the job done.
Higginbotham Brothers, a local hardware store, helps Hoge with selecting wood for the ramps and provides a discount for their cause as a non-profit organization.
The ramps are built to a one-inch drop per every running foot, which is the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) standard. The ramps are built of pressure-treated lumber and are 48 inches wide, with a three-and-a-half-inch kickboard and handrails to prevent tipping.
A wheelchair ramp can be an expensive proposition, even with material costs being on the lower end. Overall, the wood will cost around $24 to $28 per foot due to the way the organization builds from the materials.
Hoge is very passionate about building wheelchair ramps for those in need and even goes the extra mile to personally meet with each client to see how they want their wheelchair ramp to be placed and built, as well as building each module himself.
After building each ramp, Hoge and a group of volunteers will take the ramp to the designated site and assemble it upon arrival.
Once on site, assembling the ramp only takes around two hours, depending on the number of volunteers.
“Particularly, if you are elderly and don’t have a lot of strength, it is not uncommon for us to build a small ramp, along with the actual ramp itself, to help with getting out the front door,” Hoge said.
He mentioned that TRP is closely connected to Coryell Community Church, and most of the volunteers are from the men’s group. Kelly Adair, elder of the church, is the son-in-law of Hoge and agreed to let the organization use the church’s trailer to haul its’ modules to each site.
Adair also happens to be a volunteer for TRP and is experienced with building ramps as well.
Pictured is a 24-foot-long ramp that was built on Jan. 16, located on Straws Mill Road.
TRP currently has eight to nine volunteers with five to six people needed per ramp built. Hoge expressed that the organization is always searching for volunteers.
“There is not a whole lot of labor for people; it is really just a few hours on a Saturday morning,” he said. “When we leave the site, people have accomplished something; they have built a ramp and can feel good about it.”
“The Texas population is aging on average pretty rapidly, and there is a huge number of folks in the state who have physical disabilities that do not allow them to easily ingress or egress a structure,” he said. “We have built ramps for people who have not been able to get out of their house for six to eight months, and it gives a certain amount of freedom.”
According to TexasRamps.org, “More than 1.6 million Texas men, women, and children have a disability that may require a wheelchair or walker. Many of them are veterans. With Texas’ poverty rate at 14.2 percent, it is common to see many people who need safe access to their homes but lack the means to obtain it.”
To receive a wheelchair ramp, a healthcare provider or social service agency will need to fill out an online referral form, which is available on the ‘Request A Ramp’ tab of the TRP website. The form will be sent to the region’s coordinator, who will then alert the regional manager. TRP does not accept direct referrals from clients.
“We ask the referring agency if there is a financial or physical need, and, if they say yes, then we accept,” Hoge said. “We typically try to do them in the order received.”
The organization is rated around 93% that every dollar goes into building ramps locally.
“We put the money where it is supposed to go and have been forever, which I think is really important,” Hoge said. “The donations that the organization receives winds up being a ramp in someone’s front yard.”
Looking ahead, the Texas Ramps Project is committed to expanding its services and continuing to support low-income individuals in Gatesville and beyond. With the help of volunteers and donors, TRP aims to make homes safer and more accessible for those who need it most, one ramp at a time.
To become a volunteer or to donate to the Texas Ramps Project, contact Jim Hoge at 254-749-3511.
For more information, visit www.TexasRamps.org.
Story by Alexandra Meelbusch,
The Gatesville Messenger, Posted Friday, February 7, 2025 1:11 pm