The Ramp

When we first looked at 242 Canterbury St. as a possible new home I had a list of things that we could do that would make it much more hospitable. One of them was to have a handicap ramp installed so that people who could not do stairs would have a ramp. After one or two false starts we finally had an outside metal ramp donated. That was over 3 years ago! It sat in our basement waiting to be installed. In February of this year, it occurred to me that a friend in this business of “do gooding, “ Bill Fredericks,  owner of AllCare Medical Equipment, may be able to help get the ramp installed. I emailed Bill and explained my dilemma and he came right down and looked over the situation and the pieces of ramp I had.  I was pretty sure I didn’t have all the leg pieces of the ramp and he told me to contact the manufacturer and see if I could order any missing pieces. And he told me not to worry because he would have his installer come and do the job. So off I went doing a Google search for ampRamp and found the manufacturer’s contact information.  I placed a call and after a few days received an answer from the company’s representative. He asked lots of question and finally told me he would stop by and take a look because he wanted to make sure of the parts we needed. So we set up a date for him to come in. (I was sure he wanted to sell us a whole new ramp.) When he came in he looked at what we had, measured everything and made notes. Then he took a walk around the store and as we did he asked me about what we are doing here. I told him the story and how we got started. At the end of the walk he told me that he thought he could get the missing parts donated and would we be willing sign a hold harmless agreement because the company was not installing the ramp.  I told him I would, and to just send along the paperwork. After two rounds of email questions and answers I received a letter saying the parts would be donated along with a copy of the hold harmless agreement for me to sign, I promptly signed the agreement and sent it back. Another two weeks went by before I heard from the company’s shipper. She told me the order was being put together and she would send me the routing number so I could track the shipment. It was 10 days before the packages arrived. Once I received the parts I contacted Bill at Allcare Medical to let him know the parts were in and he could have his installer come back and finish the job.   On Wednesday, April 13, 2018 the ramp installation was completed and I took the first walk up the ramp and into the office, I was almost in tears because now when Mike Conrad from our Board of Directors comes to a meeting he’ll  be able to get into the office without us having to carry him up the stairs! Prayers answered.