On Saturday, February 27th, a team of volunteers representing four different churches, along with a group of UTEP students, came together to build a ramp for an 11-year old boy “S” in Horizon City, TX. Dr. Douglas Rowley of University United Methodist Church in Las Cruces, NM, organized the build and was the team leader. The churches involved were University UMC (Las Cruces, NM), St. Paul’s UMC (El Paso), St. Pius X Catholic Church (El Paso), and First Baptist Church (El Paso). The UTEP students were part of Project MOVE which occurs annually where the University sends students out to do community service.
As you will note from the Before picture, there was no railing whatsoever surrounding the existing deck. Unfortunately, “S” fell off the deck on a previous occasion while unsupervised. It was the opinion of the build team that providing a deck was only part of the solution, thus the addition of the railing was completed. The UTEP students were a HUGE help in completing the deck railing, attaching the plywood as well as operating the chop saw. They provided 3-4 hours of labor in the morning before needing to leave, and then the build team completed the ramp by mid-afternoon. The AFTER picture only shows the remaining team as the client was not home when we finished the build.