WEBVTT

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that.

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That'll be the last time you have to do that.

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I'm proud to be an American.

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I'm proud to be here

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because we have the freedom to go and help somebody else.

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The freedom to,

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um,

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put a smile on somebody's face.

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My name is Greg Schneider.

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I'm from Cincinnati,

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Ohio.

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I build wheelchair ramps.

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I've been building them for 11 years now.

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Giving back is awesome.

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I love being outside.

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I love meeting people.

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I love the excitement

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of,

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um,

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helping somebody.

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My wife realized that this was my passion and this

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is what I was meant to do when I retired.

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And so she was able to do all the paperwork and we became a nonprofit within 6 months.

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Come

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here.

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Operation Ramp It Up is a nonprofit

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that provides freedom,

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independence,

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and accessibility

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back to veterans and those with mobility issues.

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You know,

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a lot of people can't get in and out of their

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home because of whether they're in a wheelchair or a walker,

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and what we do is we provide their freedom back.

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We build a wheelchair ramp.

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I never thought it would get this big.

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My

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vision was

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maybe

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one a month,

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and,

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you know,

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now we're almost doing one project a week.

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We have ramps in every state.

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We have over 70 partners across the entire country,

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and we're able to help as many people as we can.

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My name's Andy Brown.

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Um,

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I live here in Ohio.

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I contacted Greg maybe two weeks ago,

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and here today we've got a ramp going in at our house,

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um,

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for my sister Karen.

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My sister was diagnosed with ALS last year.

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She just went in for some tingling in her fingers,

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and it's progressed pretty rapidly where,

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you know,

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she needs to have an electric wheelchair.

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The ramp is

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for when she is gonna move in with us,

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so it's gonna be a tremendous help.

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But I,

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I,

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I think that's extra support just right there.

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This is important in the community because you're not just helping one individual,

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you're helping the whole family.

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The neighbors,

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the people who have to come over and help out,

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and dozens of people

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come together to make this project happen.

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So to see them come out of the house for the very first time on their own,

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it's a remarkable feeling.

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Where's the red carpet?

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Now listen,

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you have to promise me,

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keep living,

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that every day be strong,

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OK?

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To be able to give back to somebody,

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make a difference in somebody's life.

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It gives me a reason to wake up every day.

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Some days there's good days,

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some days there's bad days.

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What keeps me going is seeing my wife's face,

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seeing the smile that I can try to put on her face,

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because every day is different.

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She's going through chemo right now.

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I started volunteering

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11 years ago

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before my wife got diagnosed with cancer.

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Because I feel like

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the more people we help,

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the more

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we give back

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to the community.

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Maybe somebody's watching us upstairs and it's gonna

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help my wife be here a lot longer.

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I tell people,

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do something.

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Go out there,

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you know,

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give some of your time

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just to make that impact because if you can just put a smile on one person's face,

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you've done something great.