Local group bulds ramps, improves lives

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - One Wabash Valley Group is helping people with mobility issues.

The program is called “Ramp It Up” and its goal is to make living easier for those who need help one ramp at a time.

It's a simple action we may take for granted, leaving the house. But, just walking out of the house has been a struggle for Karen Shultz.

"It's really painful, I can't begin to describe, its just bone on bone it's like a dry joint,” Shultz said of the pain in her legs.

The easiest way for her to get around is by wheel chair, but without a proper ramp, the chair stays in the house and she struggles with a walker.

"They said, ‘boy you need a ramp,’ I said I can't afford one and I don't know who to contact,” Shultz said.

That's where the Western Indiana Community Action Agency steps in.

"Several years ago we started a program called ramp it up with our volunteers. That's where we build wheel chair ramps for folks that needed them but couldn't afford them,” Patty Jones of WICAA said of the program called “Ramp It Up.”

That’s exactly what Karen needed.

So Saturday, volunteers from WICAA spent the day sawing, nailing, and calculating Karen's way to a new life.

After an early morning start, right around noon their work was close to completion. A perfect inclined ramp to get her back to a more normal life.

Karen Shultz can describe her feelings about this ramp in one word.
"Freedom, that's the best way I can be able to get out. I can take my wheel chair. The area 7 has the lift bus you know, so I can take it. I can go shopping I can do things on my own,” she ended saying.

It’s one Wabash Valley group making a difference in the community, one person at a time.