Students build ramps for disabled
A small group of students decided to take an alternate route for service this semester. These eight students decided to work for a cause building ramps for persons with disabilities Saturday, Nov. 15, behind the name Mobilizing Independence.
The group was assigned to do a service project for their class MHR 3110. They had the opportunity to raise money within the community to benefit micro-loans. However the group decided to use different resources to benefit members of the community by building ramps for disabled. They built four ramps and two railings at four houses, said Shelly Decker, business marketing sophomore.
“We decided that we could build something that would help people, so we tossed around a few ideas and decided eventually on ramps. The further we got into the project the more we realized how it would help these individuals,” Decker said.
Decker said that it was challenging to decide who would receive the ramps.
“A lot of people have a need but aren’t ready to have it taken care of, so we decided from the ones that could have a ramp installed and were ready and looked at how it would help them,” Decker said.
Tom Griffith, senior in finance and economics and CEO of Mobilizing Independence, agreed with Decker and said he was surprised to see how hard it was to find people who wanted their help.
The group planned and deliberated for more than a month on how to carry out their service. These plans all came together Saturday, Griffith said. The group was divided into two parts.
The first group built a ramp for a woman named Rose. They took materials from a ramp that was already attached to her house and built a ramp in her backyard by recycling these materials. The second group built three ramps at Barbara Medit’s house.
“We built all of the ramps to code. We made it so that they looked nice and were put in areas that were easily wheelchair accessible,” Decker said.
All of the ramps were built with certain implications in mind, Decker said.
“We had a few construction oriented people involved which made things a lot easier,” Griffith said.
The project ran smoothly after Mobilizing Indepence worked out the logistics of the project. They were unable to get as many sponsors from Cache Valley as they had hoped, causing a lack of supplies to build the ramps.
“Colby Bankhead and Griffith were able to redesign plans for building the ramps. It worked out really well in the end and everyone did an awesome job,” Decker said.
Although the group doesn’t have any plans to build more ramps in the near future, they wouldn’t hesitate to do so if the opportunity arose, Griffith said.
“I would hope that anyone who knows of someone who needs a ramp would get in touch with us, I know that (our group) would be willing to do it again,” Griffith said.
The group received help and sponsorship from many organizations and people within the valley and on campus.
“Seeing it make the difference that it could have and seeing the ramp after envisioning it for so long was awesome. Hearing Barbara talk about it and knowing how much more independence these individuals will have because of it was probably the most rewarding part,” Decker said.
–beck.turner@aggiemail.usu.edu