Prince William Mend-A-House builds more ramps

By Bennie Scarton Jr.

Published: January 4, 2009

Throughout the holiday season, Project Mend-A-House all-volunteer teams, led by Bill Okuly, were busy playing Santa Claus and trying to give the best Christmas gifts of all to numerous Prince William County residents—the gifts of accessibility and independent living.

Thanks to their efforts, these residents can continue to live independently in their home

Among those receiving help was Ann Wraase, a senior, low-income resident who lives with her husband, Charles, and their son, Charles Jr., in Woodbridge.

About a year ago she suffered from a stroke that has left her dependent on a wheelchair. Their home requires that she traverse two sets of stairs from the front door to the driveway—a seemingly simple task for most but an impossi-ble task for Wraase.

As a result, she became wholly dependent on her husband or son to perform even the simplest of outdoor errands.

That is, until Okuly, Mend-A-House's newest volunteer and his team came visiting on cold November day.

Using plans that had been engineered and designed by Mend-A-House' ramp coordinator extraordinaire, Jerry MacDonald, Okuly called for a hole-digging party at the Wraases' resident.

About a dozen volunteers from throughout the county answered his call for help—all eager to lend a hand.

A few days later, Okuly assembled a core team comprised of MacDonald, Howard Horner, Scott Sells, Dean Quick, Robin Bayles, Laurie Zeiszler and Ray Stuckey to lay out and install the ramp.

First, the team built a new front porch over the concrete slab coming off of the Wraase front door, which served to align the ramp with the front door threshold.

The team then built a ramp system that paralleled the front of the Wraase home comprising of about 20 feet of ramp and a five-foot turning landing.

In order to navigate the second set of stairs at the bottom of the ramp system, the workers built a sidewalk that sloped past the stairs and into the driveway.

With the completion of that project the team moved on to James Murabito, who lives with his wife and daughter in his Montclair home. He is in his 40s and for several years has used a wheelchair.

Since the family could not carry him or his motorized wheelchair down the steps, Murabito did not leave his house, save for medical emergencies. The Mend-A-House group would soon remedy this and give him back his free-dom.

The greatest challenge facing the team was an old oak tree that stood prominently in the front yard. Unfortunately, with the tree came many roots and very little precious area in which to dig post holes. This challenge notwithstand-ing, the team prevailed and build him a 55-foot ramp coming off the front door and essentially wrapping around the tree.

  He immediately took a trip around the area for about two blocks and visited areas he hadn't seen for months, except from the car on rare occasions.

Having given Murabito his independence, the crew moved to the ARC/Insight Group home, where in one day the team completed a ramp system for one of the residents who relied on a wheelchair for mobility.

Within three weeks, three county residents received the greatest present from the volunteers—a chance to regain their independence, accessibility and self-dignity.

Staff writer Bennie Scarton Jr. can be reached at 703-369-6707.