Published: August 24, 2008 08:20 pm         

Wabash Independent Living and Learning Center organizes ramp construction for disabled man

TERRE HAUTE — Barbara Lee didn’t know an organization could help her and her husband get a ramp for their trailer until she discovered the Wabash Independent Living and Learning Center.

Lee’s husband William is 72, has diabetes and is bed-ridden after his leg was amputated. He had to be carried out on a stretcher whenever he had appointments out of the trailer in Briar Ridge Mobile Home Community. Medical personnel hesitated to transport him anywhere for fear the small, wooden staircase outside the trailer would break.

She heard about the WILL Center from the Area 7 Agency on Aging, she said.

“If it weren’t for these agencies, I wouldn’t be able to get anything done,” she said, noting someone from the Visiting Nurse Association comes to their home to care for her husband.

Serving Clay, Parke, Putnam, Vermillion and Vigo counties, the WILL Center is a nonprofit, community-based, non-residential organization operated by and for people with disabilities, according to its Web site, www.thewillcenter.org. Its mission is to “empower people with disabilities to ensure that they have full and complete access to community resources to promote their independence,” the Web site states.

After the WILL Center received the Lees’ case, Lori Aplin, the center’s resource development coordinator, contacted some local organizations to donate labor for the project. Larry English, 61, of Terre Haute from Maryland Community Church responded, and was able to get a group of people together for the project.

English, along with five other church members, began working on the ramp at 8 a.m. Saturday after the WILL Center was able to purchase materials at a discount from Lowe’s with donations and grant money.

“Jesus has done so much for me, and I want to be a part to help other people,” English said about why he got involved with the project. “… I want to show Barbara and Bill [that] Jesus loves them.”

Lee, 52, said she was surprised to find an agency available to help them and that it only took a couple of weeks for everything to come together. Without this ramp, her husband wouldn’t be able to get in and out, she said, and if she fell on the weak staircase, “we’d be in trouble.”

“I appreciate them getting the lumber and time to build this ramp,” she said. “If asked, I would recommend the WILL Center.”

Harold Throckmartin, the independent living coordinator for the WILL Center, has been working there since April, he said, and is surprised, not just by the speed of the project, but by how willing people are to come together and help.

“I just feel real positive about what’s happening,” he said. “I think it’s a great mark for Terre Haute.”

For more information about the WILL Center, visit www.thewillcenter.org or call 1-877-915-9455.

Crystal Garcia can be reached at (812) 231-4271 or crystal.garcia@tribstar.com.