INDIANAPOLIS — Volunteers with Servants at Work spent part of their Saturday morning on the southwest side of Indianapolis helping a family in need by building a safe, accessible ramp to their home, just in time for the holidays.
The project supports 22-year-old Olivia Carr, who lives with a rare genetic condition called osteogenesis imperfecta, which causes bones to break easily. Carr said she has broken 155 bones in her lifetime and is currently using a wheelchair.
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“Before we got here today, they had an eight-foot ramp to come down from 40 inches, which is really scary to even walk on,” said Peter Mohr, a volunteer with Servants at Work, also known as SAWs.
Servants at Work is a volunteer organization that builds ramps and makes homes more accessible for people with mobility challenges.
The ramp will not only help Olivia, but also her two children, who have the same condition.
“We will constantly be in and out of wheelchairs,” Carr said. “Now I won’t have to worry when they get bigger, and I can’t pick them up, and I can safely get them in and out of the house if need be.”
Volunteers said the impact of a few hours of work goes far beyond the construction itself.
“It is a great feeling knowing that you can change somebody’s life by volunteering for two or three hours on a Saturday morning,” Mohr said.
For Carr, the completed ramp brought relief and gratitude.
“I’m so excited,” she said. “Honestly, I thought this was going to be years in the making.”
