Retired Senior Volunteer Program ramp builders continue service to community

ALBANY — Volunteers provide immeasurable benefits to seniors, Southwest Georgia Council on Aging officials say, helping them live as independently as possible.

In the Albany area, volunteerism is realized in part through the Retired Senior Volunteer Program, or RSVP, a SOWEGA Council program. The group has a wheelchair ramp construction program, which was at a residence on Gaines Avenue Tuesday morning — on the Mayor’s Day of Recognition.

The ramp crew, which has a total of 16 members and has been active for about 20 years, is one of the most visible services provided within RSVP — offering what is considered invaluable aide to those who are unable to leave their homes because of disability or age-related illnesses.

Ramp services are not limited to the elderly. The RSVP crew also provides for wheelchair-bound students who need to get to school when their families are unable to pay for increased accessibility.

“These ramps provide access to and from homes and provide safety in the event of fires or other emergencies,” officials with the Council on Aging said. “In addition, these ramps allow clients to go to doctors’ appointments, to see family and friends, or to go shopping.

Jim Hill said the crew, which he coordinates, is out every Tuesday and Thursday constructing ramps. Crew participation at the construction sites average 10-12 people, he added.

The moment that the ramp is completed and a resident is able to safely get in and out of their own home independently, often for the first time in a while, is always a touching one for the crew, Hill said.

“You will see a bunch of grown men fill up with tears, especially if it is a child,” the crew chief said.

The RSVP program is financially supported by Phoebe Putney Health System, which had a few of its employees — including President and CEO Scott Steiner — out assisting the ramp crew on Tuesday. Many of the clients benefiting from the service have include individuals who have had amputations due to diabetes and are therefore isolated without the ramp.

Hill said he remembered one ramp project that was for a set of wheelchair-bound twins whose mother was having more difficulty getting them in and out of the house as they were growing older.

The siblings sat out on the porch and watched as the ramp was built outside their home.

“There are just a lot of people who flat out (cannot afford a ramp),” Hill said. “(Through RSVP), you can have the ramp whether you have the means to pay for it or not.”

Officials said that over the last two decades, the crew has averaged building 65-75 ramps a year — adding up to roughly 1,200 overall.

Jennifer Parks