Volunteers from Lippert’s program “Lippert Cares” helped build an ADA-compliant ramp for the family of one of their own, the Elkhart Truth reported.
Sujeidy Vasquez’s 13-yearold son Oscar is wheelchair-bound. The family moved from Houston about three months ago and Vasquez began working at Lippert. In the mornings, Vasquez would carry her son down the steps of their home to bring him to school, and then climb the stairs to gather his wheelchair, and do the same bringing him home. When the team at Lippert Plant 58 found out, they wanted to help.
“Because our team members are so amazing, they jumped on board and said how can we make this happen?” said Carla Macedo, with human resources at Lippert. “Our team members know how to put something together and within just a couple of weeks, our team members did the measurements under the guidance of SAWs. They did the prefabrication this week at the plant.”
SAWs, Servants at Work, is a nonprofit organization out of Indianapolis, specializing in building wooden wheelchair ramps for low-income permanently disabled individuals.
Oscar was born premature and has cerebral hypoxia, a condition that causes decreased oxygen supply to the brain. One result of his ailments is being wheelchair- bound. “It’s a lifetime opportunity,” Vasquez said through a translator. “I’m very happy to work for Lippert. I feel like part of a big family because ever since I started they’ve always treated me nice and like part of the family.”
Each of the nearly one dozen volunteers constructing the ramp or working on it at the factory before construction was a team leader from Lippert.
Click here to read the whole story from Dan Messick in the Elkhart Truth. Note that a subscription is required.
