ORION TOWNSHIP, Mich. – On Saturday, June 11, 2024, volunteer workers from Faith Works and Faith in Action of Oakland County (FIAOC) came together to build an aluminum wheelchair ramp for an Orion Township resident with mobility issues.
The volunteers arrived early Saturday morning to put together a donated aluminum ramp for a resident on Chalice Rd. ONTV’s Joe Johnson spoke to Chris Sturges of Faith Works on the day the ramp was installed.
“These are all aluminum ramps, they’re very lightweight and they don’t rust so it’s a lot easier to put in than the wooden ones…” Sturges said.
Photo by Joe Johnson
In just a few hours, the volunteers built and installed the ramp for the resident. This grateful act was made possible in part by Mission Possible.
‘Mission Possible’ is a subset of the non-profit group FIAOC, created in 2019, and is a dedicated team of volunteers that help residents across Oakland County with mobility-related needs.
“We bought some of the pieces, but most of the material is donated,” Sturges said.
According to the Faith In Action website: “In Oakland County we are still Faith in Action of Oakland County (FIAOC) but our name has added another more explicit definition regarding what we are doing as we are calling our program ‘Mission Possible’ that will focus on more specific help for our poverty level elderly and disabled homeowners.”
Aluminum ramps are traditionally expensive, however, if they are donated, they can be reused over and over again. This helps a lot with the volunteering aspect of these programs since the non-profits do not have to spend a lot of money in order to install the ramps – volunteers can bring their own tools as well.
If you or someone you know has an aluminum wheelchair ramp that is no longer in use, reach out to FIAOC or Faith Works and they will send volunteers to disassemble it and store it until a new residence needs it.
“You’re more than welcome to donate anything you want, we’re desperately in need of any resources all the time… and it goes to bless someone who can’t do it for themselves,” Sturges said.
For more information on how to get involved with these groups, or to put in a request, visit faithworksmichigan.org or faithinactionoakland.org.