For a person confined to a wheelchair, one or two stairs may as well be a cliff, requiring able-bodied help any time he or she needs to leave or enter the house.

Problem is, the cost of a ramp for a mobile home — typically 40 inches off the ground — is almost $1,000, and that’s just materials. For many of our neighbors-on-wheels, that’s another impossible barrier.

In Blanco County, the solution is a group of volunteer builders working through Johnson City's First United Methodist Church. Using money raised locally and from the Texas Ramp Project, a statewide non-profit, they design the ramp, buy the materials, and build the structure at no cost to the recipient.

“This is one of the most rewarding parts of my job,” said Pastor Lee Romero. “We start with a person trapped in their home through no fault of their own, and we end with a person who literally has been set free.”

The process begins with a medical professional or social worker going on line and filling out the simple application on the Texas Ramp Project’s website. The TRP approves the project (the record is 20 seconds) and notifies the Blanco County team, which consults with the recipient about needs and design, then draws up the plan and goes to work.

Typically, the time from consultation to completion is a week or two.

“Part of the work is building the ramp to federal Americans with Disabilities Act standards,” explained quality-control boss Tommy Levitt, himself a wheelchair user.

“Our end product has to be something the recipient can use by himself, easily and safely.”

For last week’s ramp at a home south of Blanco, the team used a one-of-a-kind design created specifically for that job.

The builders themselves aren’t all Methodists, although the team works out of the Methodist Church, and not all are skilled builders, but all have enough skill to be helpful, and the skills develop as they get mot ramps under their tool belts.

“Our youngest volunteer has been seven years old, and he did a good job for us,” recalled build-boss Dave Hamm. “And nobody in the world feels more empowered than a teenaged girl who has mastered cutting heavy lumber with the big, noisy power saw!”

To apply for a free ramp, go to the TRP website at https://www.tfaforms.com/408007. For information or to volunteer for the ramp team, call Angie at 868-7414.