Volunteers from RampsRVA and Dominion Energy’s Veterans Resource Group recently installed a ramp for Chris Matzer, a U.S. Air Force veteran, who has difficulty walking due to neuropathy. The nonprofit has installed 525 modular wheelchair ramps for financially qualified older adults and disabled people in Henrico County, Chesterfield County and the City of Richmond. Photo courtesy of RampsRVA

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Antonio Winslow, whose left side was left paralyzed after a stroke a year ago, takes an inaugural ride down his new wheelchair ramp, provided and installed at no charge by RampsRVA. Photo courtesy of RampsRVA

James Thornhill, pictured on his porch on Leigh Street, lives in a solar-powered house built by Project:HOMES. Photo courtesy of Project:HOMES

On one of the hottest days of 2021, Chesterfield resident Susan Stephenson, who uses a wheelchair, was buoyed by the sight of 24 volunteers in her front yard.

Despite the weather, which she said was “hotter than blue blazes,” a crew from the nonprofit RampsRVA arrived with tools, dismantled her broken wheelchair ramp and installed a new one. One volunteer even mowed her lawn.

“Everyone had a job, and I never heard one complaint about the heat,” Stephenson said. “It was a very emotional day.”

The ramp “is a godsend,” said Stephenson, who can now go outside for fresh air and to talk with neighbors. “It’s my legs and my independence.”

RampsRVA installs free modular wheelchair ramps for homes in Richmond and Henrico and Chesterfield counties. With a ramp, people can more easily get to their mailbox, medical appointments, church and other places and reconnect with friends and their community.

One recipient, a woman who had been confined at home for a year, rode jubilantly around the neighborhood in her wheelchair after RampsRVA installed her ramp.

“Seeing someone coming down a ramp the first time brings tears to the eyes — to the person in the wheelchair, to the family, and to the volunteers who built it,” said Scott Kocen, executive director of RampsRVA.

No cost to recipients

RampsRVA got its start in 2005 when school officials at Collegiate School, a nondenominational private school in Richmond, asked students to develop a philanthropic project in their community.

Three students, Mike Down, Coleman Wortham and Gray Fain, came up with the idea of providing ramps to those in need of one. That led to the creation of the nonprofit, whose logo reads: RAMPS — Ramp Access Made Possible by Students.

The group’s mission proved so valuable and popular that more than 300 students involved in clubs at seven area high schools now assist the nonprofit.

They are joined by retired older adults and volunteers from companies like Dominion Energy and Burns and McDonnell, an engineering firm. The organization also partners with Senior Connections and the Richmond Housing Authority.

With the help of more than 1,500 volunteers, RampsRVA has built almost 600 ramps since that first year, at no cost to the recipients. A six- to eight-member team can typically build a ramp and attach it to a house in three hours.

However, wait time for a ramp can be several months to a year. For each ramp the organization builds, three more requests come in.

While installing modular structures is easier than building from scratch, putting in a ramp “is a science,” Kocen said, explaining that crew members have to measure to the inch, even the screws and bolts. The group also refurbishes used ramps.

The ramps, which cost the organization $3,000 each, are modular, which means they arrive in sections and must be put together. They are all steel, permeable and recyclable, and meet Americans with Disability Act (ADA) guidelines.

Product changes lives

Some ramp recipients have been isolated at home. Many have degenerative conditions like arthritis, diabetes or respiratory illnesses. Some people, including those undergoing rehabilitation in a nursing home, cannot be discharged to return home until they get a ramp installed.

These metal structures help caregivers, too, who otherwise would have to carry the disabled person and a wheelchair up and down stairs. “It’s for the entire household,” Kocen said.

There are also rewards for the 40 to 50 volunteers who build four to five ramps a month. They can immediately see and take pride in their work, and share the joy so obvious in people and their families. Volunteers get their hands dirty and feel they have made an impact, Kocen said.

One volunteer, Jim Down, retired in 2005 from marketing supermarket products and did not want to sit in front of the television all day. Since then, he has helped install more than 100 ramps.

His son, Mike, was one of the group’s original student founders. Now the senior Down is president and chairman of the board of directors of RampsRVA.

Down believes that what inspires volunteers and keeps bringing them back are “three equities” — financial equity thanks to fundraising (so ramps are free to recipients), physical equity from joining together to build the ramps, and emotional equity when they see what the ramp means to the recipient.

Stephenson, who uses her ramp every day, is very grateful. “RampsRVA is an amazing organization,” she said. “They change lives.”

Project:HOMES

Another Richmond-based nonprofit, Project:HOMES, has been “improving lives by improving homes” since it was founded in 1992.

With teams of both volunteers and professionals, Project:HOMES does home-safety repairs, installs water-saving toilets, railings and grab bars, and bolsters energy efficiency with insulation and solar panels. They even build new, affordable houses and renovate dilapidated ones.

The organization sees high-quality affordable homes, home repairs, better accessibility, and energy and water efficiency as ways to enhance the quality of life. These upgrades also enable people to gain wealth as home values rise.

And in 2019, the group started a mobile home repair program funded by the city of Richmond and Chesterfield County to make mobile homes safer and warmer.

“Project:HOMES impacted the lives of 8,237 Virginians this year with improvements for 3,798 homes and the sale of 23 affordable homes,” according to its website.

Solar Row in Carver

Muralist James Thornhill lives in one of the organization’s seven solar-powered homes in Richmond’s Carver neighborhood, just blocks from Jackson Ward, where he grew up. (Thornhill has painted many murals around the city and was featured on the cover of Fifty Plus in February 2018.)

“It’s just right for me,” he said of the 1,200-square-foot house he bought for $185,000 on “Solar Row,” as it’s called.

A retiree, Thornhill is relieved to be largely free of the maintenance usually required for older homes. His rooftop solar panels reduce his electricity bills, and he can display his art on the walls for clients who visit his home studio. Added assets are the tomatoes, cucumbers, melons and herbs that he grows in his back yard.

The Homebuilders Association of Virginia gave the group an Innovation Project of the Year accolade in 2020 for the solar homes. In 2019, Historic Richmond awarded Project:HOMES a Golden Hammer Award for excellence in neighborhood revitalization.

Project:HOMES also partnered with Virginia Housing to bring shipping-container homes to the Blackwell neighborhood in 2019, and manufactured modular homes to the Richmond area.

Bonnie Newton loves her manufactured home. “It’s the size of a trailer,” she said, “but it’s like a mansion to me.”

For more information, visit rampsbystudents.org and ProjectHomes.org.