CORRECTIONS: Please see the article: New Area Coordinator Appointed as it was inadvertently left out of the newsletter previously sent on Sunday, May 8. 2022.
In the Ramp of the Month column, the correct TRP region is Austin West. The county is Blanco and the city is Johnson City.
|
|
 |
|
|
|
May 2022 Newsletter
Volume 3, Issue 5
|
|
|
|
Message from John Laine
TRP's Executive Director
|
|
Dear Friends,
We are steadily moving toward a significant goal that I envisaged at the start of our efforts—construction of our 25,000th ramp. I would imagine that this milestone will be reached in 2023 at our current pace. While that certainly is a bunch of ramps, it does not approach the demand that we see now. We are building about 40% of our referral rate. The need rate will only go up with the steadily increasing graying of Texas.
Last weekend our builders in San Angelo built 10 ramps on a Saturday in a successful blitz build. I was fortunate to have been part of that effort, and I would encourage all of our groups to consider doing a blitz of their own. If you can build 10 or more on a single day or weekend, I would be happy to join you and lead a team. Please give me about 30 days’ notice so that I can make sure you are on my schedule.
The benefits in the form of local publicity should help you find both new volunteers and donors if you approach your local media beforehand. If existing donors would like to be mentioned (please make sure that they would), we should highlight them as well. Not all donors want to be mentioned, so be sure to ask them first.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Most gratefully, John
|
|
New Area Coordinator Appointed
Stephen England has been appointed to the newly created position of area coordinator overseeing the North Central Texas region, which includes 14 counties divided into NCT North, NCT East, NCT West, NCT South and Tarrant County.
Stephen’s major function will be to work with each of the existing regional coordinators to facilitate the growth and effectiveness of these regions. His mission is not to manage but to lend guidance and assistance and to promote the Texas Ramp Project within the area. The current structure of over 40 regions reporting to the executive director is unmanageable, and we will be moving towards this area coordinator structure whenever possible in the future.
Stephen will report to the executive director and board of directors and will continue to serve as a member of the TRP board.
Garner McNett
Board President
|
|
Opportunities with Habitat for Humanity
TRP has now inked three agreements with local Habitat for Humanity organizations that will involve reimbursements for ramps. Jim Hoge, a Waco Ramper now living in Coryell County, used his contacts at Waco Habitat to set up a program there. He has just set up another with Fort Hood Area Habitat for Coryell County in the Temple/Belton region. And Frank Smith of Austin East just signed a memorandum of understanding with Fayette County Habitat for Humanity.
According to Steve Jackson of McLennan County, the Waco Habitat provided over $33,000 in reimbursements in 2021—53% of Waco’s total spending for 110 ramps. A similar amount has been made available for 2022. The Fort Hood and Fayette County Habitats have pledged to pay up to $10,000 each. Ramps are invoiced as they are built.
There are scores of local Habitat for Humanity organizations across Texas. There is likely to be one in your community, easily accessible with a simple Google search. This is a potential source of both funding and volunteers. We often have Habitat volunteers turn out for ramp builds because they like to see an end result—a happy one—with just a morning’s work rather than at the end of several months’ efforts.
Local Habitats usually have paid staff and contact information on their website. Once you establish a contact, you can point to these regions where we already have partnerships. Or get in touch with Mark Hinzman, board member, at mark.hinzman@gmail.com.
|
|
April Grants and Donations
The Carl C. Anderson, Sr. and Marie Jo Anderson Charitable Foundation has approved a $25,000 challenge grant for Texas Ramp Project regions. If you believe you can find $5,000 in new funding within the next three to four months, please let us know. Other challenges are also in the offing, so think about your ability to raise local funding. Please respond to Sandy Knutson at sjkbits@aol.com.
Other grants received in April include the following:
- $20,000 for San Angelo from the San Angelo Health Foundation.
- $20,000 for statewide use from the WellMed Foundation.
- $15,000 for San Antonio Northwest from The Perry and Ruby Stevens Foundation.
- $3,500 for Texoma from Cooke County United Way.
- $2,459 for Waco South from Waco Habitat for Humanity.
- $1,250 for San Antonio Northeast from St. John’s Episcopal Church.
- $1,200 for Austin West from The Church at Horseshoe Bay.
- $1,000 for San Angelo from the Sonora Lions Club.
- $672 for East Texas Jacksonville from Evangelistic Temple.
- $500 for East Texas Jacksonville from United Way of Rusk County.
- $250 for Austin West from Hill County Fellowship.
|
|
Volunteer of the Month
Gary Poe
Scurry County Coordinator, Abilene Region
|
|
Gary Poe is (in his words) “truly oil field trash (pun intended) and very proud of it.” Although born in Longview, his family followed the oil boom to Snyder, where he grew up in a company oil camp. Today Gary lives on 40 acres in rural Scurry County and provides very effective leadership for the Scurry County Ramp Project.
Since October 2010, when Gary started leading builds in Scurry County, volunteers have built about 168 ramps, including 14 last year. Gary was part of a crew from Colonial Hill Baptist Church who built a 50-foot ramp with John Laine. The team needed a leader, and Gary, who was newly retired, stepped up. He liked to build things, liked to work, and loved people—so it was definitely a good fit.
Gary also serves as the main team leader. He and his wife, Sammie, conduct site surveys and order materials. Modules are built in his barn/shop, where tools are also stored. He is looking for a second team leader, but seems to have plenty of volunteers to show up on build days. Lumber and hardware costs remain a primary challenge.
Like many West Texans, Gary did electrical work for numerous oil companies, finally settling at ExxonMobil for 32 years. His job took him to Russia for five years to help start up their offshore program. He also spent 16 years in Midland with Mobil Pipeline Co. before being transferred back to Snyder.
Click on the text link as you don't want to miss the "rest of the story."
|
|
Gary (on the right) lending a helping hand on the demo ramp at the statewide conference in February.
|
|
Given our limited financial resources, the cost of a ramp dictates how many people that we can serve. Lumber is the most significant cost of building a ramp. For many years, except for a short-lived peak in May of 2018, the cost of lumber had been relatively stable. Then COVID hit. Since then, the cost has been volatile and significantly up. A ramp can cost double what it used to. |
|
More recently, the February price of a 2x4 was 150% higher than in October. Fortunately, after declines beginning April 1st, the current (April 30) price is “only” 50% higher than last October. Let’s hope the recent trend continues; lower cost means we can build more ramps.
|
|
Corporate Volunteers = Funds for the Texas Ramp Project
by Mark Hinzman, Corporate Relations
|
|
I recently joined the Texas Ramp Project with a focus on corporate relations. My primary responsibility is developing partnerships between TRP and businesses across Texas. Ideally the partnerships include both financial support and participation of employee volunteers in ramp builds.
Increased support from corporate partners is critical due to the spiraling lumber and materials cost along with the growing demand for ramps. Many companies are increasing their investments in communities where they do business. They may:
- provide grant money,
- match employee contributions dollar for dollar, and/or
- make a donation to the nonprofit based on employee volunteer hours worked.
I am reaching out to corporations and corporate foundations that currently do not provide grants to the TRP. In reviewing the criteria for financial support, a common theme is that many foundations either require existing employee volunteer participation or give the highest priority to nonprofits who have volunteers from their company participating.
|
|
You may have volunteers in your region who are unaware of their company’s participation in a program like this. Examples of such companies are ExxonMobil and Texas Instruments. Many other companies also offer these donations, often for retirees as well as current employees.
If you know of any volunteers who work for a large corporation, please email me the name of the company and the volunteer’s name. I can then research whether we can approach them for corporate funding. You can contact me via email at mark.hinzman@gmail.com
|
STEC employees pausing for a picture on the ramp they completed. |
|
|
Building Basics - Electronic Resources and Minimum Ramp Requirements
by Roy Harrington
|
|
The pros and cons of some electronic resources and understanding the absolute minimum ramp requirements are the subject of this month’s article.
When possible, my first “visit” to a referral is using Google Street View, such as the picture below.
|
|
This capability can provide a rough idea of the ramp need and can help find the house when you actually do the in-person survey. A quick look at the example image above says “…there isn’t enough room for a ramp at that house…” because a step riser is around 6 inches. This means there has to be room for roughly 18’ of slope, which obviously isn’t available in the Google street view.
In some cases, the satellite view can also be helpful but, as shown below, trees are often an issue, and you can’t see near the detail available in the street view.
|
|
Do you have other tips or suggestions to share?
Based on the discussions at the conference, there are a lot of very good ideas being developed by ramp builders across the state.
Please send any questions, comments or potential ramp construction topics to texasramps.roy@gmail.com to help others build ramps better, stronger and faster.
|
|
Ramp of the Month
George Barnette Memorial Build
Blanco County
|
|
The Ramp of the Month is departing from highlighting a client ramp this month. We are lifting up a very special ramp built as way to honor the memory of George Barnette, who was a strong advocate of the Texas Ramp Project. For the past 11 years he built on a regular basis.
George recently passed away and this ramp was built in a very visible location directly across from the LBJ ranch, a destination visited by thousands of people annually. This 29-foot ramp was constructed by 10 volunteers from First United Methodist, Johnson City, who donated 30 hours of labor. The ramp will be complete when the TRP plaque is attached to the the ramp in a prominent place.
|
|
Pass the Newsletter On to Others |
|
Also, do send email addresses of people in your region who should be receiving it, along with their name and TRP region, to Sandy Knutson at sjkbits@aol.com.
If you prefer to NOT receive the newsletter, you can unsubscribe by emailing sjkbits@aol.com and asking for your name to be removed or use the "Unsubscribe" link below.
|
|
We hope you enjoy having the newsletter sent to you directly, as it is filled with useful information, building hints and tips, data collection updates and processes, client stories, special announcements and recognitions.
The newsletter only does its job when it is dispersed and shared with all who might be interested. We encourage you to liberally pass it on to others in your region.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
