Near and Dear

Have you ever had a passion for something that could be destroyed by a vote? I have one. I have worked in a senior clinic for 2 and a half years providing better health to our local seniors. I love my job and I love seeing the smiling faces of patients who get to escape their house for a few minutes. Unfortunately, sometimes this is the only time the patient gets to leave their house. Sometimes they have to stay inside because of simple barriers. Though we cannot help everyone we can help many. We can help people who are bound to their homes by wheelchairs. How do we do this?

Texas has a wonderful program known as the Texas Ramp project where people from all over including churches, support groups, doctor offices volunteer their time to build wheelchairs ramps for people who could otherwise not afford it. These are done on Saturdays, all the supplies are donated all a person has to do is volunteer their time and muscles and they can build a ramp for someone and change their life forever. Personally it’s the best feeling in the world. When you see the person who was chosen for that project roll down their ramp for the first time it’s exhilarating. These people who had lost a sense of purpose and their quality of life had started to decline get to take it all back.

Now the real question comes to mind why would I take the time to write about something that is so perfect? Unfortunately there are people in this world that want to make projects like these a lot more difficult than they should be. I tried to research this in the news but sadly I only have the information that has been passed down to me from the people who have helped us volunteer. On Tuesday August 6, I had to sign a petition letter to get city council member to vote in favor of Resolution 60. This was to vote in favor of keeping the Texas Ramp Project alive in Austin. Failure to pass this resolution could result in hard time for Texas Ramp project. “The resolution would streamline code compliance for us and minimize or eliminate permitting costs. Failure of the measure would involve higher costs and impose design restrictions that would limit the number of ramps we can build” according to Dennis Mick of Texas Ramp Project. That was a quote from an email he sent us. To my understanding this means they want new building codes with stricter rules, meaning each ramp would have to be inspected by a certified person which would cost this volunteer service a lot more money and time.

I do not know yet what the verdict was on Resolution 60 I hope to know soon. I look forward to building many more ramps for these home restricted people. I can only put myself in their shoes or their family I would want my family member to still be able to get out and enjoy the wonderfulness Austin and all other Texas cities have to offer.