BEDFORD – Bedford Lions Club members started building wheelchair ramps in 1989 but they didn’t realize how successful a project it would become.
The ramp building project has not only been one of our most popular projects, but it has also been one of our most satisfying for members in the long history of the club. They also didn’t imagine the number of appreciative individuals they would assist and the impact the project would have on those people’s lives.
In July of 1989, the Lions heard about a local woman who was confined to a wheelchair and had been able to get out of her home only once in six years. Building her a ramp would be a great World Service Day Project for the Lions to donate time and serve their community. The Lions decided to construct a wooden wheelchair ramp from her porch to the ground in order to improve her quality of life.
The first ramp, which was 18 feet long, was made from plywood sheets placed on wooden framing covered with carpeting and this type of construction was continued until 2004, when the Lions started using 5/4 deck boards with no carpeting to cover the wooden framing and that construction continues today. There are no professional carpenters among the Lions who work on the ramps but you couldn’t tell that by the great work that is turned out by this caring group.
In most cases, they are senior citizens taking pride in aiding other senior citizens. Since that first ramp, members have now donated their time and effort in building a total of 300 wheelchair ramps and 50 handrails of various lengths, donating more than 11,600 hours to people in need in the Bedford area. In the last 10 years, the Lions Club ramp builders have averaged building 15 ramps per year. The Lions always donate all the labor in the construction of the ramps and the club will contribute a portion of expenses toward the required building materials from its ramp building fund if the family is unable to afford them.
Over the years the Lions ramp building fund has received assistance from various individuals, many local churches, organizations, and other grant sources in the community. Lengths of the ramps have ranged from 8 feet to 86 feet with many platforms, direction changes, and sturdy handrails. Most ramps are finished in a day with an average of 6 to 10 Lions working 4 to 6 hours each to complete a ramp. One 86-foot ramp built in 2015 took two days and 164 man hours to complete.
The Bedford Lions Club was honored in 2000 with a story and photo in an issue of “The Lion” the official magazine of Lions Clubs International about their ramp building project. In addition, the local club in 2002 received an award from their Lions Club District for the Lions District Most Outstanding Project and later that year was honored at the Indiana Lions Club’s State Convention with a Lions Club’s State of Indiana Activities Award for the best Lions project in the state. The Bedford Lions Club were also asked to have an informational booth at the 2011 Indiana Lions Club’s State Convention to guide other Lions Clubs in the state on how to build wheelchair ramps in their communities.
Various dedicated Lions have served as the ramp project chairman over the years and along with the present chairman Ken Brumbaugh have all done a fantastic job of living the Lions Motto “We Serve.”
Lion Brumbaugh summarized this project very well by saying “We all really enjoy the camaraderie of working together for someone in need. This is a great way to serve our community through the Lions Club. We all have a warm feeling in our hearts when a ramp is finished and the person we built it for uses it for the first time. “That person’s smile makes all the hard work worth it and gives us the incentive to help the next person in need by building another ramp.”
