LEESVILLE — The Country Club Road park recently added handicap-accessible equipment to its grounds, thanks to volunteers with PRIDE Industries at Fort Polk.
Eight employees volunteered to craft three Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant tables from materials purchased by the city, said community events coordinator Jeremy Ward.
“When we learned of the city’s need for craftsmen to build the tables, we knew we could help and we put together a team of volunteers who were very happy to help out with the project,” Ward said.
The new tables have an extra 3 feet of tabletop extending at each end and an added 6 inches of height, and Ward said those small changes can make a world of a difference to someone in a wheelchair.
“It’s little things like that that most people take for granted,” Ward said. “People don’t think about having to roll a wheelchair up to the edge of a table and not being able to comfortably reach it or fit your legs underneath the edge.”
The picnic tables were not the first project that volunteers with PRIDE helped to construct. Last summer a group of nine volunteers helped build a wheelchair-accessible swing.
The national nonprofit is one of the largest employers of people with disabilities. The organization serves Fort Polk by performing routine maintenance at various facilities, as well as electrical and plumbing work.
“We have over 200 employees with diverse skills and trades, and we just want to help the community understand who we are and what we do here,” Ward said.
Leesville Mayor Rick Allen said he appreciated the volunteers’ work.
“They contacted us when they first heard that we were planning on adding some handicap-accessible equipment and offered their help,” he said. “We just could not be more grateful for what they have done.”
Ward said the organization is also working on plans to help construct more equipment for a park in the Lee Hills area.
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