MY NEW AVOCATION
Several months ago, Tom Davis, one of the Deacons at our church said, “You would love to be part of our ramp building crew at the Kiwanis Club.” He explained that there are a lot of organizations in town, but the one he is with is a part of the Texas Ramp Project that builds ramps for people with disabilities to enable them to get in and out of their houses. Tom invited me to a meeting that takes place every Tuesday at the Methodist Church. A few weeks ago, I went to my first meeting and really enjoyed it. I was pleasantly surprised to see a bus pull up and a couple dozen special needs club members file into the meeting room, mostly young people. As the brother of a special needs man capable of so much, their addition warmed my heart. It became clear that this wasn’t the average service club.
I learned that besides the ramp project, they are involved in the Meals on Wheels program as well as providing income tax assistance for seniors through a partnership with the AARP as well as several other ongoing service projects.
By the second meeting I turned in my application to join, and the following Thursday I began my tenure with the Texas Ramp Project. I met the crew at their warehouse just west of downtown Greenville. They have a well-equipped carpenter’s shop and ample room for storage, all of which is donated by a local businessperson. Most of the ramp that was to be built that day was prefabricated at the shop. It was immediately clear that this crew knew what they were doing. Almost everyone except me was retired from L3, a defense contractor that is the biggest employer in town, and most of them were retired engineers.
By the time we were done at the shop, the ramp we were about to put in was like a really big Ikea project without the box. Every piece that could be cut and assembled was put on a trailer along with an arsenal of battery powered tools that were all reconditioned and donated by their manufacturers.
We headed in a caravan to Quinlan where a lucky recipient’s life was about to get a lot easier. I had been warned to wear my rubber boots for this particular build because the road had recently been built up in front of the mobile home where the house was, and as a consequence water drained from the street and pretty much stayed around the house. I soon learned that the wet conditions they described were no exaggeration. So, with a little debate on how to proceed as engineers are prone to do, the sound of saws, battery drills, and hammers began in earnest. A landing was built that matched the existing height of the door on top of the front porch deck all the way to the edge. Then the ramp began in several sections that kept an ADA required 5-degree slope. Once the 24-foot ramp was installed, the work on the handrails began, and three hours after we started the ramp was complete. Then, as I had learned, was the two best parts of the project. One, showing the grateful homeowner their completed new ramp. And two, a terrific lunch with my new Kiwanis Brothers. It was a good day.
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