Ladies Wheelchair Ramp

           What does a woman who is wheelchair bound and purchases a home with steps do?  She calls on a team of women to build her a wheelchair ramp, that’s what!
            Several months ago a couple from out of state purchased a new home in Cleveland County, NC.  It was the first home for them to own, but there was a problem.  The wife is disabled and confined to a wheelchair and had never seen inside the home.  As the couple was readying their new home for occupancy, word came to Operation Inasmuch Coordinator David Brown that this couple had to have a ramp before they could occupy their home.  Instead of enlisting the men of his church, Elizabeth Baptist Church, Shelby, NC, to take care of the problem, he recruited a crew of women to build the ramp.
            This team of 10 women undertook to build a 25-foot wheelchair ramp in one day, and with the supervision of David Brown, finished the job and watched the homeowner roll into her home for the first time.  One of the team members, Janet Brown, says:  “It was the first time any of us had built a ramp, but it was rewarding for us to do construction work.  We had women from their twenties to their seventies working on this project.  When we finished, we all asked ‘When are we going to do this again?!’”
            When men brought the women lunch, role reversal was in full display.  Someone said later the men quietly expected that they would have to pitch in to help the women when they arrived with lunch and were disappointed to see that their help was not needed.
            None of the women had ever used the power tools the job required.  The nail gun was everyone’s favorite with women vying to see who would use it.  Team member Karen Rogers says:  “It was fun to learn how to do new things.  We can’t wait to do the next ramp!”
            “This is an excellent example of new leadership surfacing in an Inasmuch event,” says David Crocker, Executive Director of OIAM, Inc.  “When we present Inasmuch to churches that have not yet experienced it, we tell them that Inasmuch almost always calls forth new leaders.  This church is NC may have the first all-female wheelchair ramp in the state now!”
            When asked what she would say to women who have never participated in a construction project for Inasmuch, Karen Rogers says:  “Don’t let the guys fool ‘ya; it’s easier than they let on!”
           

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