Ramping Up For Charity

2016-06-22

Until the fall of 2014, if you had asked me what I knew about Bosch, I’d have told you they make expensive dishwashers. If you had asked me what I knew about impact drivers, I’d have replied “is that a marketing term?”

I owned some tools – an old (and heavy) corded drill, a small hammer and a set of screwdrivers that was a housewarming gift from my parents. Whenever anything needed to be fixed at my house, I hired someone and tried to stay out of his or her way.

But in November 2014, at age 51, I was online reading (and watching) reviews of all the major brands of impact drivers, then looking for the best price on a cordless 18 volt Bosch impact driver and drill set. If you’d told me a year earlier that in the future I’d one day be buying power tools online, instead of just books and makeup, I’d have replied “no, I’m not a power tool type of woman.”

Now, two or three Friday nights a month, I charge a pile of lithium ion batteries and put them with the Bosch impact driver and drill, a set of spade bits, a circular saw, a reciprocating saw (with extra blades) all in a tool bag. Then I put tool bag and an open tool tote (with miscellaneous hand tools, work gloves and boxes of drill and driver bits) all in the trunk of my car. In the long narrow space that is left, I put my tool belt – but only after going through it and making sure it is organized properly and the carpenter’s pencils don’t need sharpening.

It’s likely that I’m the only single, female financial services executive in my city that goes through this ritual. This is the story of how I went from spending my “fun” money on clothes, shoes, books and electronics to buying power tools and spending some of my Saturdays helping change lives.

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That fall of 2014, I was at my office and received an email from the office’s community service community about my employer’s annual “wheelchair ramp build.” I’d never built anything, but the email said no experience was required. I’d get to meet more of the over 500 people in the office and it would look good on my first annual review. So I signed up.

Texas Ramps is an all-volunteer organization with a board of directors and chapters in over 60 Texas cities. Texas Ramps started with a group of Dallas area Kiwanis club members and over the last 30 years has built over 11,000 wheelchair ramps, to provide clients – people who use wheelchairs and walkers – with a safe way to get in and out of their homes. These are people who cannot afford to pay to have ramps built and, as a result, they rarely leave their homes.

On the second and third Saturday of every month, benevolent volunteer team leaders of the Dallas Texas Ramps chapter meet at a warehouse provided by a local furniture company, to load pickup trucks and divide the volunteers into teams.

Many of the volunteers who meet and are assigned to the team leaders have never built anything before; they signed up at work, at church, at their club or civic organization for a “community service project.” There are a smattering of volunteers who aren’t team leaders but who come out regularly to do builds.

As one of those smattering of volunteers, I was up at 6:30 on a Saturday and by 7:30 was, along with my compassionate co-workers, loading ¾ inch sheets of 4 x 8 foot plywood, 2 x 4s, 4 x 4s, and pre-assembled “base modules” into the pickup truck of the team leader to whom we had been assigned. To be honest, when I found out those plywood sheets weighed 80 Lbs. each, I decided I’d load 2 x 4s.

I wouldn’t trade an extra few hours of sleep for these builds. Although I’m just one person, we as an organization have made a huge difference in the community and have given back to so many people. Just two years ago I could never picture myself with power tools in my hands, participating in a community service project on a Saturday morning. But now, this giving back has become just another part of my weekly routine.