The kids at this North Carolina school, just like most kids, love coming home from school via the bus. Hopping off and running into their homes is an age-old thing every kid remembers doing.
But it’s not so fun for one particular girl.
14-year-old Almay Belton needs a wheelchair to get around, and that makes a bunch of things harder to do.
It makes climbing stairs particularly difficult. And in our society, stairs are just about everywhere. As much progress as we’ve made with a lot of things, this is still one area where things can still improve.
So whenever the bus takes her home, she doesn’t exactly look forward to the following trip up the steps.
Her father, Anthony Belton, had to carry her up the steps whenever she’d arrive home.
It was tedious. Not an ordeal that Almay enjoyed. Of course, Anthony being her dad would do anything to help his little girl.
But as Anthony said, it was hard on his back and he was “getting older, not younger.”
“It was kinda hard mostly on her. She’s going up and down the steps – so basically she’s constantly bumping and jumping up the steps, and you can see her jumping and jumping.”
So on another day like every other, Anthony helped her up the steps. This was when Joe Hill noticed them.
Joe Hill owns Premier Waterproofing and felt this overwhelming desire to help.
So Joe approached and asked them “I was wondering, would you mind if I came out here and built you a ramp for nothing?”
Anthony wasn’t sure what was going on at first. The offer came out of nowhere. “Yeah OK there’s got to be a catch. Nothing is for nothing” he replied.
But Anthony meant every word. And to prove it, he did exactly what he offered.
He returned with his crew on the 13th of December to build the accessibility ramp for Almay.
Now, in place of those steps that were a pain for Almay, there was now a simple ramp. It made a world of a difference.
Almay was all smiles when she first saw the ramp.
It was probably the biggest smile she’d shown in a while. Anthony was happy to see his daughter smiling too.
And of course, Joe was delighted that he helped put smiles on their faces.
“The smile did it for me, yeah. And knowing that she can do it pretty much by herself…so it’s a little more independence for her.” said Joe
Anthony was incredibly grateful.
His daughter can feel a lot happier coming home from school, and he doesn’t have to hurt his back lifting the wheelchair anymore.
Joe was their good Samaritan and they won’t forget what he did for them.
One more takeaway from this story is how much more we could be doing for wheelchair-bound people. If it’s as simple as building ramps outside your buildings, then maybe we should encourage more places to do this.
Watch the video below and see how happy Joe made Anthony and Almay!
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