It was after retirement that Jim Stroh really ramped up.
He got things rolling for a lot of people in Larimer County by building 85 residential wheelchair ramps as part of his church’s handyman ministry.
At the end of a 30-year engineering and marketing career with Hewlett-Packard in 2005, Stroh wanted to volunteer for ministry through his Dayspring Christian Church in Fort Collins.
Church leaders gave him a hammer. He eventually would sign up 25 members of his congregation and some nonmembers — and their kids — for this labor of love. They got assistance from Volunteers of America, which helped coordinate jobs and find donors, such as Disabled Resource Services, to pay for materials or to provide them at cost.
A ramp can cost $1,000 to several thousand dollars to build. The church focused on low-income recipients.
“There was a big need out there,” the 58-year-old Stroh said Thursday from his Loveland home. “There are still a lot of folks who need this help.”
The Northern Colorado Branch of Volunteers of America will recognize the contribution of Stroh and his team at 9:30 a.m. today at Dayspring Christian Church, 8005 Highland Meadows Parkway in Fort Collins.
“Jim and his volunteers from Dayspring ministries have provided a tremendous service to the community,” VOA handyman coordinator Bill Patterson said. “Providing a wheelchair ramp to someone who is physically challenged can mean the difference of living an independent life or being trapped in your home.”
Stroh said he felt the greatest sense of accomplishment when the team built a ramp for a woman who hadn’t been out of her trailer in a year.
Her tiny stoop didn’t even allow her to sit outside the door in her wheelchair, he said.
“That’s when I knew I’d done something,” Stroh said.
By the time he’d figured it all out, he said, the team could build a ramp in four to six hours. And many on the team, such as his friend Dan Menzies, a retired postal worker, put in many hours with him over the years.
“Dan isn’t even a member of our church,” Stroh said.
Now Stroh is moving on to the second act of his retirement by volunteering for maintenance duty at his church. Others retirees, though, are stepping up to build ramps as he steps away.
“They’re carrying on,” Stroh said. “People need to know they can still get this kind of help.”
Electa Draper: 303-954-1276 or edraper@denverpost.com
