Fundraising effort planned for November 17-18, 2022
Can you imagine what it is like to be trapped in your own house? To not have the mobility to get out the door and down the steps to the car? To have to wait for someone to come carry you to the car just to get to a doctor’s appointment? That is the reality for more and more people in our area who are limited by wheelchairs or canes.
The Ramp Guys are a volunteer group that have heroically built numerous ramps to allow some of these folks the ability to get out of their homes and live again. But both the cost and the need has risen so that to date there are 16 local residents who still need ramps but the Ramp Guys have no funding to supply those ramps.
FLXGives is a one day campaign to raise funds for local organizations in the Finger Lakes region. The campaign date this year is from November 17 at 6 p.m. through November 18 at 6 p.m. The Ramp Guys are aiming to raise $25,000 during this campaign to build those 16 ramps.
The public is encouraged to help them reach their goal by visiting https://bit.ly/TheRampGuys. Cornell Cooperative Extension of Steuben County, the Hornell/Steuben County Office for the Aging, and the Avoca United Methodist Church are all helping to promote this project and are asking the public to join in the effort in four different ways:
1. Share the posts from the CCE Steuben Facebook page (facebook.com/ccesteuben) every Thursday to help spread the word.
2. Become a fundraiser by visiting bit.ly/TheRampGuys and click on the Fundraise button. An email will guide you through the steps for setting up your page to share with all your friends and family.
3. Set up a Match Donation. Pledge an amount such as $500 and allow it to be unlocked only when other donors have raised that much. Contact crd24@cornell.edu for further details on setting up such a commitment to the project.
4. Donate on November 17-18 to the project. Watch our posts for special times you can donate to help us unlock additional prize funds from the Community Foundation of Elmira-Corning and the Finger Lakes, Inc.
Since the beginning of 1998 to date, the Ramp Guys have constructed 644 ramps all over Steuben County. In the early years only 6 to 10 ramps were requested each year. The average material costs per ramp were approximately $335. Over the years the requests have increased to 30 to 50 per year and the average cost per ramp is now $950 or more depending on the length of the ramp. When a ramp is no longer needed, if they are notified, they remove it, refurbish it and either put it up for someone else or use it to reduce the cost of a future ramp.
The joy The Ramp Guys see from the people they help is all the pay they need. They hear such comments as “This is wonderful”; “I was a prisoner in my home”; “I will no longer be a burden to my family and neighbors to go shopping”; “”I no longer fear falling when I need to go out”; and many more. One man came down the ramp with his power scooter while the Ramp Guys were still finishing it. He went down to the sidewalk hollering “I’m free! I’m free!”
This is the kind of freedom you can provide with your donation to the Ramp Guys on November 17-18, 2022!
For more information about the Ramp Guys or this project, please contact crd24@cornell.edu.
