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By Meredith Avery |
AMARILLO, Texas (KAMR/KCIT)
This year, a local organization has built more than 100 ramps at the homes of the needy and disabled across the Texas Panhandle.
The Texas Ramp Project was started in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex in the 1980s. A chapter of the volunteer organization was created in the Panhandle in 2007.
Since then, the team has organized 10 teams of volunteers to build hundreds of ramps in Amarillo, Dumas, Borger, and Perryton.
“We want to make sure that everybody that needs access to their home has access to their home,” Greg Hinders explained. To be in and out and able to get to appointments and have freedom to be where they need to be.”
Hinders is a volunteer and regional director of our local chapter.
He said when they first started, there was a massive need and not enough volunteers to handle the work load. Things have balanced out in the past few years, but the group is always looking for volunteers and financial contributions.
“We build ramps for people who need them and can’t afford them,” Hinders continued. “Some of them are in wheelchairs, some of them just have a hard time managing steps. Some of them cannot get out of their house without an awful lot of help, five or six people sometimes to help them get down some stairs. A lot of them are in mobile homes that are pretty high and just a few steps can be really difficult for some people to navigate.”
Ramp recipients are referred to the group by a member of the medical community; a doctor, nurse, or physical therapist.
A team leader from the Texas Ramp Project will make an assessment of the need, and if approved, a team will spend half of a Saturday building a new ramp.
For more information on how to apply, visit: https://www.facebook.com/TRPAmarillo/.
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