Shoreline firm creates wheelchair ramp for North Seattle woman

Ramp built by Irons Brothers Construction for
North Seattle resident Florence Greff
Photo courtesy Irons Brothers Construction

Ramp captain Joseph Irons, President of Irons Brothers Construction and his team designed and constructed a free wheelchair access ramp for Florence Greff of Seattle.

Florence, who turns 85 this year, is a retired Psychology professor and the first woman charter member of Rotary International's North Seattle district. She has fallen three times in the past year and was in physical and financial need of a ramp for her North Seattle Home.

Florence, who still maintains her membership in the Shoreline Rotary and is past department head of Psychology at Bellevue College, is in a wheelchair almost 100 percent of the time. She was recently released from Shoreline's Rehabilitation Center after falling and is attending rehab therapy 2-3 times per week.

Before the ramp, Florence's two sons were  helping her to crawl in and out of the house over a set of stairs to attend these appointments.

Before the ramp, there was a set of stairs
Photo courtesy Irons Brothers Construction

Suffering from permanent back dysfunction and arthritis, Florence will benefit immensely from the new access ramp built at her home last Saturday as part of the Rampathon program.

With 5 kids, 28 grandkids, and 31 great grandchildren - all located in the state of Washington, she looks forward to being able to visit with them more often with a regained freedom and safer transport.

May 16, 2015, the Greff family, along with several other families throughout King and Snohomish Counties were the recipients of a free wheelchair ramp built as part of the Master Builders Association's Community Stewardship Rampathon Event.

Three teams of volunteers from Irons Brothers
worked on the Greff ramp
Photo courtesy Irons Brothers Construction

This year marks the 22nd year of Rampathon - providing over 350 wheel chair access ramps, totaling more than 1.7 million dollars of in-kind contributions since 1993. This year, Irons Brothers Construction, based in Shoreline, is participating in its 11th year of building its neighbors in need wheelchair access ramps.

Thanks to the Master Builders Association's Community Stewardship Department and the generous donors listed below, this ramp will be built at no cost to the recipient.

Special recognition to donors for the Florence Greff ramp:

• Dunn Lumber for material donations
• Irons Brothers Construction for volunteer labor and materials

More about Rampathon

Irons Brothers Construction is celebrating 16 years of business in 2015 and opened a Design + Build Center showroom located at 1510 NE 170th St., Shoreline, WA 98155 in 2014. Here they showcase universal design, aging in place remodeling and best construction practices. Company owners, Joseph and Melissa Irons, have their Certified Aging in Place Specialist designations (CAPS) thru the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and incorporate universal design principles into each project they undertake.