SAWs completes 12th year of service to Putnam County
SAWs (Servants of Work), a mission of the Greencastle Presbyterian Church, which provides improved home access to disabled residents of Putnam County, has completed its 12th year of service to the community.
In its dozen years of providing help to those who have difficulty accessing their homes, Saws has built 213 ramps.
Due to COVID-19, 2020 has been a difficult year for all. As 2020 began, SAWs built its first ramp near the end of January which made partcipants think it might be their best year ever. However, when the COVID-19 virus hit, that expected great year was brought to a halt.
Unfortunately, SAWs’ ability to build ramps was stalled until April. When the virus was spreading, participants wondered at first if they would be able to help the disabled of Putnam County or whether they were going to be shut down for an entire year.
After much discussion, the GPC SAWs team, with the help of its parent SAWs organization in Indianapolis, developed a protocol for addressing the dangers of COVID. This protocol includes the wearing of masks, use of ramp sanitizers, social distancing on site, and staying away from clients. All communication with clients is conducted via phone or mail.
With this process SAWs was able to go ahead with ramp building and assist 17 Putnam County residents before ending its 2020 build season on Dec. 5, only three ramps short of an average year.
So now that a proven protocol is in place to build ramps and a vaccine will be available to prevent the disease early this year, SAWs has started planning for its 13th year.
The SAWs budget was drastically impacted in 2020 by the shutdowns of business and other organizations that in previous years have been able to provide donations to support SAWs’ work. Because of conservative budgeting in previous years when so many residents and organizations provided donations, SAWs has been able to continue helping those who need it.
Along with the virus issues of 2020, there have also been drastic shortages and price increases in the lumber needed to build the ramps. This has caused a significant drain on the funds needed to keep SAWs going. The cost of a ramp has increased approximately 40 percent in the past year.
As SAWs begins to plan its 13th year of service to Putnam County, SAWs is again looking for clients. If you are disabled and need help accessing your home, contact SAWs at 653-5713. The number of ramps SAWs can construct each build season is limited, and normally it will have more requests than it can build each year. So do not delay in calling.
The work of SAWs is provided to qualified disabled residents at no cost. Also, SAWs is an expensive mission with the average ramp costing $1,500 in 2020. Therefore, SAWs is again seeking community partnership through monetary donations to continue its work into this new year.
Donations can be sent to: Greencastle Presbyterian Church, P.O. Box 512, Greencastle, IN 46135.