A Fundraiser for the Streator Ramp Builders

A wheelchair ramp is easy to overlook until one step becomes the thing keeping someone inside.

For years, the Streator Ramp Builders have been answering that problem with lumber, tools and volunteer labor. Their mission is simple: build ramps for people who need help safely getting in and out of their homes.

Now the group is asking the community to help them keep doing it.

The Streator Ramp Builders will be the focus of a Quartermania fundraiser Tuesday, July 7, at the PNA Hall, 906 Livingston St. Doors open at 5 p.m., and the auction begins at 6 p.m. Food will be available for purchase, the bar will be open, and attendees are encouraged to wear Hawaiian shirts.

The cause is serious. The dress code is mercifully not.

Helping the helpers

The Streator Ramp Builders are one of those local groups that can be easy to take for granted, mostly because they are so practical. They do not make much noise. They do not need much ceremony. They just show up when someone’s home no longer fits the reality of that person’s life.

A surgery, an accident, an illness, an aging parent, a wheelchair, a walker, a bad fall, and suddenly the front steps that have been there for 40 years become a daily problem.

That is where the Ramp Builders come in.

The organization builds and maintains handicap-accessible ramps for people in need throughout Streator and the surrounding area. Shaw Local has reported the group serves residents within about a 30-mile radius of Streator and completes about 80 projects a year.

Think about that for a moment. Roughly 80 homes a year where someone has an easier time getting to the doctor, going to church, sitting outside, visiting family, or simply leaving the house without the whole day turning into an ordeal.

That kind of work does not transform a neighborhood all at once. It transforms one doorway, one porch, one family and one daily routine at a time.

Built by people who know how to build

The Ramp Builders are mostly volunteers, many of them retirees, from the kinds of backgrounds Streator understands well: tradesmen, teachers, farmers, mechanics, electricians, plant workers, postal workers and others who know how to work with their hands and solve problems in the real world.

A ramp may look simple when it is finished, but simple is not the same as easy. Someone has to measure the space, figure out the grade, make sure the turns and landings work, get the materials, cut the boards, install the railings and leave behind something sturdy enough to be trusted.

Then, if everything goes right, the ramp fades into the ordinary life of the home.

That is usually how useful things behave.

Why this fundraiser helps

The July 7 Quartermania event is a direct way to support that work.

Quartermania fundraisers are built around small bids, donated items and community participation. People come out, eat, visit, raise a paddle and help turn a fun night into lumber, hardware and future ramps.

It is not complicated, which is part of the appeal.

A reader sent us a message promoting the event said it plainly: “Ramp Builders is ALWAYS there when you need them. Hopefully you won’t need them, but they are there to help… so let’s HELP them.”

That is probably the cleanest argument for showing up.

Streator has had plenty asking for its attention lately. Storm cleanup, summer events, school issues, city meetings, family schedules and the usual July chaos all compete for time. But this is one of those local fundraisers where the connection between support and result is easy to understand.

Money comes in. Materials are bought. Volunteers build. Someone gets back out the door.

A Streator kind of progress

Streator has always been a town of builders. Coal miners, glass workers, machinists, farmers, tradesmen, shopkeepers and laborers all helped shape the city in different ways.

The Ramp Builders belong in that line.

They are not building factories or laying out streets. They are building something smaller, quieter and immediately useful: a safer path between someone’s home and the rest of the world.

That is worth supporting.

The fundraiser begins at 5 p.m. Tuesday, July 7, at PNA Hall, 906 Livingston St. The auction starts at 6 p.m. Food will be available, the bar will be open, and Hawaiian shirts are encouraged.

Wear the shirt. Raise the paddle. Help buy the lumber.

The next ramp may be for someone you know.