Union Volunteers Build 300th Wheelchair Ramp

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2011/07/26/union-volunteers-build-300th-wheelchair-ramp/

This is a cross-post from the Machinists.

A Seattle-area veteran who served his country in Vietnam was the recipient of another kind of service recently when volunteers from the Machinists (IAM) union built a wheelchair ramp to help him get in and out of his Tukwila home.

The ramp represented a major milestone for both Dan Olson, the veteran who got the ramp, and for the members of the Machinists Volunteer Program (MVP) who built it. It was the 300th ramp that the MVP has built for Puget Sound-area residents since their program launched in 1997.

“We’ve done a lot of projects that have helped a lot of great people over the years,” said Robley Evans, the chairman of the MVP Committee. “But our 300th ramp was really rewarding, because we were helping a veteran who has also been a fellow union member.”

“Thank you very much,” Olson told the volunteers who built the ramp. “I appeciate your help.”

The Machinists Volunteer Program was the brainchild of Bill Johnsen, the former president of Machinists Union District Lodge 751 in Seattle, and Ed Lutgen, who at the time was a union activist.

FULL story at link.

[spin]

1. K&R (n/t)