Wheelchair Ramps: Amramp Provides Access in any Situation

At one time, it was easy enough for Debra Roush to simply carry her son Robert Martin in and out of the house. Approaching age 4, however, Robert is growing, despite Spinal Muscular Atrophy.

 

Debra would carry Robert to the car and rush in to get his equipment and pediatric wheelchair.

 

Now, it’s never been easier for the two of them, or even for another caretaker, to get out of the house, which has a short flight of steps leading to the entry. With an Amramp modular wheelchair ramp, Debra can pack up Robert’s pediatric wheelchair and easily walk down the ramp, no more EMT gurneys.

 

Amramp franchisee Pathfinder Services heard Robert and Debra’s story through Huntington, Indiana-based Kids Kampus organization.

 

The Pathfinder Foundation grant allowed Amramp’s patented steel ramp to be installed at their home free of charge.

 

Debra told The Huntington Herald-Press newspaper, she couldn’t believe it. “Things have never come easily like this for us, or just given to us. I’m so thankful for them.”

 

According to the Spinal Muscular Atrophy Foundation, “SMA is a rare, inherited disease characterized by muscle atrophy and loss of motor function, caused by the absence of or defect in the Survival Motor Neuron 1 gene.” 

 

Spinal Muscular Atrophy varies widely, but even if moderate function and mobility are often limited. According to the foundation, “People with SMA either never acquire, or progressively lose, the ability to walk, stand, sit, and eventually move.”

 

Quality of life can be enhanced with multidisciplinary therapies, the foundation says, noting: “children with SMA undergo normal intellectual and emotional development and, with help and support, can participate in many childhood activities” – all the more reason to make life a bit easier for both Debra and Robert.

 

Your home should be welcoming you, not worrying you.
Call Amramp today to schedule a free on-site estimate.
Please contact Amramp's National Call Center at 888-715-7598.

With a population at about 20,000 people, Huntington may seem like just another Northern Indiana small town. Perhaps one of the more striking aspects is its commitment to residents and to those living in surrounding counties who have disabilities.

 

Pathfinder Services, as it’s been known since 1981, actually started in 1965 and is dedicated to fostering opportunities for people with disabilities: group homes, supported living, community integration, and employment services.

 

Integration is a key component, as its Kids Kampus programs illustrate. Started in 1973 as a preschool for special needs children, and it’s since expanded to provide for 120 children of all abilities and income levels.

 

The newest Pathfinder Services Inc. expansion is an Amramp franchise, providing modular wheelchair ramps throughout Northeastern Indiana.

 

One Amramp owner exemplifies how Pathfinder brings multiple resources to help a family in need.

 

As Robert Martin approaches age 4, his mother, Debra Roush, finds it increasingly difficult to get them both outside. Martin has Spinal Muscular Atrophy and uses a pediatric wheelchair.

 

Amramp’s modular wheelchair ramp eliminates the struggle of getting Martin’s pediatric wheelchair up a flight of steps leading into the home. Martin participates in Pathfinder’s Kids Kampus program, which lead the Pathfinder Foundation to donate an installed ramp.

 

According to the Spinal Muscular Atrophy Foundation, “People with SMA either never acquire, or progressively lose, the ability to walk, stand, sit, and eventually move.” Yet “children with SMA undergo normal intellectual and emotional development and can participate in many childhood activities.”

 

And for this, Amramp honors Pathfinder Services: Roush told The Huntington Herald-Press newspaper, “Things have never come easily like this for us, or just given to us. I’m so thankful.”

 

Your home should be welcoming you, not worrying you
Call Amramp today to schedule a free on-site estimate
Please contact Amramp’s National Call Center at 888-715-7598

Even Santa sometimes needs a wheelchair ramp. Parents with strollers, disabled children in wheelchairs, and elders using walking aids all got their chance to reach Santa and his gifts and decorations on an elevated stage inside the Stratford Square Mall in Bloomingdale, Illinois.

Amramp became Santa’s helper with a modular wheelchair ramp customized for the venue.  
   
Short-term wheelchair ramp rentals can make fund-raisers and holiday activities fun for everyone. Amramp rents temporary wheelchair ramps, even if the ramps are only needed for one day – such as Election Day – a weekend, or up to six months.

Holiday bazaars, church fairs, visits with Santa: The season’s best events boost nonprofits and soup kitchens, but often the venues make it difficult for everyone to participate. Church basements and other historic buildings often cannot accommodate supporters and friends who use wheelchairs or other walking aids.

Amramp’s modular wheelchair ramps can easily be adapted to buildings of all kinds, including those with side or rear entrances. Amramp has made churches and other historic buildings safer and more convenient with non-slip surfaces that are essential in bad weather.

Amramp’s 43 locations nationwide are proud to install wheelchair ramps usually within 48 hours.

Relax and celebrate this cherished time of year with your loved one, despite age and declining health complications. Amramp’s temporary wheelchair ramp rentals – as short as one day – and quick installs continue your traditions.

Sadly, most homes shut out our loved ones, an increasing problem with an aging population that’s growing fast and more elders using wheelchairs and walking aids.

For extended families with large traditional gatherings, hosting holiday dinners poses challenges for the homeowner, the guests, and – most of all – the loved one who perhaps is now living in an assisted living facility or long-term solution. Much as you’d like to “get them out” for just one day, you fear further jeopardizing your loved one’s health and well-being.

Oftentimes elders living far from their children will hesitate to make a trip because of lack of mobility when they leave familiar surroundings.  A temporary modular wheelchair ramp rental from Amramp can solve the problem. The steel ramps are secure and can be placed easily at an entrance to a private home. Because they are modular, they can adapt to any style home.

Amramp’s patent-pending steel wheelchair ramps can be purchased or rented even for just one day. Amramp’s 43 locations nationwide take pride in installing modular ramps, within 48 hours in most cases.

How familiar is this story to you?  Do stairs, hills, and distance threaten your loved one’s safety and dampen the holiday cheer?

With the passage of another Veterans Day, we at Amramp would like to propose that Americans think of both active duty and veterans every day.

 

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan come home to our communities when we welcome soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines: Nearly all of Amramps’ independent owners have supported such homecomings, bittersweet as families cope with service members’ injuries.

 

All 40 Amramp franchise locations nationwide, strive to make these homecomings as seamless as possible, returning these heroes to their families as quickly as possible once they are discharged from medical facilities, installing modular ramps generally within 48 hours.

 

In some cases, the wheelchair ramp is only temporary. As happy as our professional installers are to provide the ideal ramp rental for every situation, we’re equally thrilled when that ramp is no longer needed.

 

In long-term cases, Amramp provides the ideal wheelchair ramp solution that can hack almost any weather. Whether it’s long-term, short-term, or uncertain, Amramp is committed to making sure our customers, veterans or not, are satisfied.

 

Your home should be welcoming you, not worrying you.
Call Amramp today to schedule a free on-site estimate.
Please contact Amramp’s National Call Center at 888-715-7598.

Wheelchair ramps, under the influence of the Americans With Disabilities Act, have become such a part of the national culture that it’s hard to recall how closed much of America was before the law was enacted on July 26, 1990.

The law requires that virtually all public spaces be accessible to those who use wheelchairs. It also mandates that most public events be heard by those with impaired hearing through the use of assistive-listening devices or sign-language interpreters. And it has opened classrooms to children previously thought unable to participate in traditional schooling.

Probably nowhere is the ADA’s influence more noticeable than in transportation systems. Buses and trains are outfitted so that people who use wheelchairs can be accommodated.

It’s impossible to overestimate the significance of the law’s impact on the daily lives of people with impaired mobility. To be shut off from movies and theater, deprived of access to town hall and the library, excluded from sporting venues – this is a life half-lived – or not at all. But it remains the norm in most countries of the world, where the needs of people with disabilities are neither understood nor responded to.

Consider the possibilities open to a person in a wheelchair. Most jobs that can be reached by public transportation are now within reach, though transit systems still tolerate unacceptable breakdowns on escalators and elevators, which are lifelines. Because ADA regulations prevail across the country, a trip can be planned with the expectation that accessibility is guaranteed at the destination.

Historic sites now have ramps and hearing devices. In some areas, scenic paths and even the beach can be reached by specially designed ramps and pathways that accommodate wheelchairs.

Ramps are so common that we often fail to notice them, but they presented a challenge when the law was first passed. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for providing access to buildings that were constructed long before the Americans with Disabilities Act could have been foreseen.

Many municipalities have taken special care to erect ramps at town hall or school buildings that are in keeping with existing styles. And progress providing access to public buildings has led to more options to make private homes accessible.

Wheelchair ramps can be rented or purchased and custom designed to overcome challenges like hills and porches without major structural changes to the existing home of building. As a result, those who use wheelchairs have a wide range of living choices; they do not have to be in an elevator-equipped building if that does not suit them.

The advent of the ADA was met with understandable consternation by those who would have to alter their places of business to comply with the law. Many believed it went too far. But two decades of experience have shown that the benefits far outweigh any cost or inconvenience.

Charlotte’s newest attraction, the NASCAR Hall of Fame, opened in May 2010 with all the fanfare the racing mecca could muster.

But to one avid fan and oft volunteer, the landmark meant more than fun times at the track.

Amramp’s Rick Griffiths joins numerous local contractors in appreciation of the NASCAR Hall of Fame injecting vitality into a city hard hit by the financial crisis. While demand for wheelchair ramps often rides out economic fluctuations, Griffiths sees the impact on the Carolinas every day.

“It’s exciting for Charlotte and for NASCAR to display its history. And it’s a big plus for Charlotte, something to do/see even when there’s not a race,” Griffiths said.

With public financing, the city of Charlotte, N.C., expects the $200 million hall of fame to generate $60 million annually. In its first seven days of opening, the NASCAR Hall of Fame hosted 10,000 visitors.

Being part of the project – Amramp installed five permanent ramps inside, mostly “behind the scenes” – is almost as good as driving the track, where “it’s a big rush of exhilaration to be in a car that’s shaking, averaging 142 mph,” Griffiths says.

Although hall of fame visitors may never see the Amramp modular wheelchair ramps inside, the NASCAR influence is not lost on Griffiths.

“The NASCAR affiliation brings attention from a nationally recognized brand, one of the largest sports markets.” The Amramp owner cited Pepsi’s AMP sponsorship with Dale Earnhardt Jr.: According to CNBC in 2008 “sales of AMP Energy drink grew 127.5 percent in top NASCAR markets. And growth almost hit 100 percent in the grocery channel alone.”


See “where the race lives on” at the NASCAR Hall of Fame.  For more information on how Amramp’s modular ramp systems can overcome public facilities’ challenges, call 888-715-7598 or visit www.amramp.com.

Amramp Partners with Helping Hands

On the morning of June 19^th, Helping Hands, a partnering volunteer install group through the First Church of the Nazarene in Huntington completed a wheelchair ramp for Pathfinder Amramp. Ryan Burns, Edward Doake, Donald Garde, and Philip Graves from Helping Hands volunteered their time to install the wheelchair ramp at the Roush household in Huntington.

Thanks to the wheelchair ramp designed by our Amramp Experts, and installed by Helping Hands, 3 year old Robert Martin, who suffers from the most severe form of Spinal Muscular Atrophy, is able to leave his home in a reclining wheelchair. His mother, Debra Roush can now safely assist Robert down the wheelchair ramp instead of having to navigate steps in their home. Pathfinder Amramp has changed their lives and gives them the opportunity to do something many of us do without thinking, leaving home safely and conveniently.

“Helping Hands has been great to work with! Through the assistance of Helping Hands we were able to provide a wheelchair ramp to the Roush family of Huntington,” stated Kay Smith, Operations and Sales Coordinator for Pathfinder Services. “Through the community partnership of the donation of time and manpower from Helping Hands and the generous donation of funds from the Pathfinder Foundation, the Roush family was able to have their wheelchair ramp moved from their previous residence to their current home,” Smith concluded.  “This would not have been an option with a wooden wheelchair ramp.  Accessibility is critical for this family and the modular wheelchair ramp system that we offer with Amramp proved to be a valuable use of resources,” Smith replied.  A year ago, the wheelchair ramp was installed at a previous address and with great ease it was able to be reconfigured and reinstalled in a matter of hours for the family.”

Amramp allows for families and businesses to rent or buy ADA compliant low cost, modular wheelchair ramps with a special grip ramp surface. The wheelchair ramps are made of durable, non-skid mesh steel. The wheelchair ramp grips tires and is safer than wood, the grated surface allows the weather to pass through.  Pathfinder’s Social Mission Closet allows for wheelchair ramps to be provided for free through community donations and a generous donation from the Pathfinder Foundation.

Amramp offers free home evaluations and meets with each client to custom design a wheelchair ramp. All of the wheelchair ramps are installed by trained Amramp specialists. Wheelchair Ramps are available in days not weeks or months and most installations take less than a day.

Amramp is the newest division of Pathfinder Services, Inc. specializing in portable wheelchair ramp systems providing solutions for clients in North Eastern Indiana.  To make a donation to our much needed community social mission wheelchair ramp closet or for more information on Amramp please call Loretta Mottram at (888) 715-7598 or e-mail her at Loretta.mottram@amramp.com.

For more information about Pathfinder Services, Inc. please visit www.pathfinderservices.org.  Pathfinder Services, Inc. is a comprehensive human and community development not-for-profit human services organization based in Huntington, where it was founded in 1966. In addition to Huntington County, Pathfinder Services also provides services in Adams, Allen, Dekalb, Grant, LaGrange, Marshall, Noble, Starke, Steuben, Wabash, Wells, and Whitley Counties.

Amramp, offers a fast, easy and safe wheelchair ramp solution to improve people's lives.  Amramp is a national organization with local, factory-trained professionals and with local inventory throughout the country. To learn more about Amramp's modular steel wheelchair ramp system, please fill out the form to the left or call us toll-free at 888-715-7598

The Joint Veteran's Commission in Cleveland, Ohio recently held a Flag Day event in June, 2010. The event was being held to celebrate the service that veterans and active military provide to our country.

The event was held at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, OH. The front area of the property had a space that would be used as the stage. However, the stage was not wheelchair accessible. A serious question came up, how would veterans attending the event, who needed access to the stage get there? 

John Wright, from Amramp Cleveland had the answer. John Wright, a veteran himself realized that a rental ramp from Amramp would be the perfect solution. John is in the wheelchair ramp business and has offered many wheelchair ramps for rent in the past. In this case, John donated the time and equipment to get this rental ramp in place.

Thanks to the help of John Wright and the other organizers of this event, things were able to move ahead as planned and the Flag Day ceremonies proceeded.

John's team, skilled at their profession, was able to have the rental wheelchair ramp completely in place by 10AM on the morning of the event. After the festivities, the ramp was taken down and removed just as quickly, by 3PM that day. Amramp's modular wheelchair ramp system is the perfect solution for a 1-day special event wheelchair ramp rental. This same equipment can also be rented longer term for those recovering from a disability or even purchased by those who need a wheelchair ramp permanently.

Amramp, offers a fast, easy and safe wheelchair ramp solution to improve people's lives.  Amramp is a national organization with local, factory-trained professionals and with local inventory throughout the country. To learn more about Amramp's modular steel wheelchair ramp system, please fill out the form to the left or call us toll-free at 888-715-7598

 

With families spread far and wide across the country, summer is the time when get-togethers are easier. That means grandparents, of course. But they and other family members who use a wheelchair or walker have special needs.

Many families worry about whether including someone who uses a wheelchair in the plans is possible because of accessibility questions. A wheelchair  ramp is the ideal solution but few families have one at their home, and vacation rentals typically are not very accessible.

Perhaps you’ve picked out a perfect spot to relax for a week, a house or cottage or villa with a bedroom on the first floor. But getting in and out of the house is making you think twice about whether it’s realistic to invite someone who uses a wheelchair. That’s where renting a wheelchair ramp comes in.

It’s not difficult and it’s affordable to have a modular wheelchair ramp installed at your home for visitors who use wheelchairs. Or you can rent one and have it properly installed in time for your week at the summer cottage on a lake or at the beach. Amramp’s modular wheelchair ramps can adapt to most surroundings with no damage or permanent alteration to the rental property.

Many families have memories of summers long ago at a vacation cottage and would like to gather generations of the family to relive the experience. They shy away, though, if the place is rustic and hard to access for those who use a cane, walker, or wheelchair.

A temporary wheelchair ramp solves this problem. And if the vacation rental doesn’t have an updated bathtub or shower, a temporary shower that hooks up to the kitchen sink for a water source is the answer.

Amramp rents and sells sturdy wheelchair ramps that can be installed by our professionals within a day. Unlike smaller, lightweight ramps, Amramps are adaptable for use in settings such as sandy, beachfront property or uneven terrain by a lake cottage. And there’s no permanent damage to the rental home.

Renting a wheelchair ramp for the vacation is an alternative to searching for a hotel that’s accessible for people who use wheelchairs. Many vacation areas are less likely to have large hotels with full amenities designed for those who use wheelchairs or walkers. And they can be distant from the shoreline.

Amramp, offers a fast, easy and safe wheelchair ramp solution to improve people's lives.  Amramp is a national organization with local, factory-trained professionals and with local inventory throughout the country. To learn more about Amramp's modular steel wheelchair ramp system, please fill out the form to the left or call us toll-free at 888-715-7598