When a Blanco resident comes home from the hospital, she’ll discover Santa was there in her absence, and left a 66-foot wheelchair ramp under her tree.

The volunteers who build the ramps for low-income residents spent two days last week putting up the structure in Blanco.

“We had planned on a one-day job,” said build-boss David Hamm, “but the slope of the ground made the ramp longer than expected, and the holidays took away some of our volunteer help, but the weather was beautiful and we were able to make good use of the resources we had.”

Most of the Blanco County team members live in Johnson City, and this was their first ramp in the southern end of the county.

“We’re happy to have our Johnson City neighbors come down and help our residents,” said Bruce Huguelet, the team’s Blanco volunteer. “To make this a truly county-wide program, though, we need to recruit more south-county volunteers to take care of our own needs.”

The program is part of the Texas Ramp Project, a state-wide non-profit which provides wheelchair-bound residents access to their homes even when they can’t afford to have ramps built commercially.

“The materials for this project cost more than $1,000. We raised half of it from generous local donors, then the TRP matched that to double our money, and finally we added local volunteer labor to do the work,” Hamm explained.

“And it’s all free to the recipient.”

Applications for free wheelchair ramps must be made on line to the Texas Ramp Project at www.texasramps.org/Topic.aspx?wiki_id=333. The application must be made by a medical professional (doctor, nurse, home health nurse) or a social worker.

For more information, to donate to Blanco County projects or to volunteer to help build, contact the Johnson City First United Methodist Church at 830-868-7414.