Occupational therapy students are raising funds to install a stairlift at Reading's Hope Rescue Mission

Sep. 24—Occupational therapy students at Alvernia University and Penn State Berks are making a difference in the community as they complete the community-based clinical experience program.

Currently, two Penn State Berks students are raising funds through GoFundMe to install a stairlift inside Hope Rescue Mission's building. Abigail Stoltzfus and Bianca Ruiz are currently doing their level II fieldwork at the nonprofit homeless shelter for men in Reading.

The living quarters in the building are on the basement and second-floor.

While ramps have been added outside the building to provide access for guests with physical disabilities to the shelter dormitory, dining hall, chapel and veterans center, the building does not currently have a stairlift or elevator inside.

"We're only here for eight weeks and so we really wanted to do as much good as we could while we were here," Ruiz said. "The subject is really important to us and I'm sure to the guys who need it. This is a gift to the men here and the mission itself because they do such good things for the men in the community"

'Branching out'

Stoltzfus and Ruiz are the fourth group of students to be placed at Hope Rescue Mission as part of the community-based clinical experience program. Through the program, occupational therapy students are placed at nontraditional settings for their fieldwork.

The program was developed by Dr. Maryann Brennan, assistant faculty member in the occupational therapy department at Alvernia University and adjunct faculty member at Penn State Berks.

She created the program since there was a shortage of traditional clinical placements for students due to COVID. The program meets the needs of the profession by placing students out in the community at nontradtional sites.

"One of the things that I found that was extremely empowering to the profession was branching out of the traditional model," Brennan said. "That really is the aim of our profession right now, to take it to the community and to show that occupational therapists think differently and they really can be innovative."

The program started in January and since then has had more than 30 students.

According to Brennan, the goal of the program is to teach students to prepare to take occupational therapy into the community to meet the needs of the community while at the same time meeting the needs of the students to grow and develop clinical skills.

Seeing the success Alvernia students were having with the program, Brennan said Penn State Berks reached out to her about including some of its students in the program.

While Stoltzfus and Ruiz are not the first students in the program to be placed at Hope Rescue Mission, Brennan said they are the first Penn State Berks students.

"Bianca and Abigail are very mature individuals," Brennan said. "They're constantly doing. In the field of occupational therapy, that's what the mission is, what the vision is for the profession moving forward, to create these leaders that don't do the same thing every day. They see a need and they meet a need."

Meeting a need

The GoFundMe fundraiser expands on the work done by Alvernia students who completed their master's level fieldwork at Hope Rescue Mission in summer.

Stoltzfus said the need for a stairlift was identified by those students who also got a quote for the project. Though neither she nor Ruiz had ever done a fundraiser using GoFundMe before, Stoltzfus said they decided to give the site a shot.

Brennan said when the students asked her how long she thought it would take them to raise the money needed to install the stairlift, she cautioned them that it may take longer than the duration of their fieldwork at the site but it would get carried on by the next students, if that was the case.

"Bianca and Abigail were dead set that they were going to raise the money," Brennan said. "Abigail was insistent that she really wants it to happen (while they are there)."

On Thursday, more than $2,000 of the $7,000 goal had been raised on the GoFundMe page.

Earlier in the week, Brennan shared that the goal was reached for a stairlift to be installed between the basement and first-floor through an anonymous donation that was not reflected on the GoFundMe page.

"It was through the grassroots efforts of the students that we reached that goal," Brennan said. "That is an incredible accomplishment, but why stop there. We know that the second floor needs to be accessible as well."

'So proud of them'

Stoltzfus and Ruiz said the reaction from the guests at Hope Rescue Mission about the project has been very positive.

"There's a gentleman in a wheelchair and he's just thrilled," Ruiz said.

"He's so grateful for it," Stoltzfus said, adding they are also organizing a winter clothing drive. "We're trying to help as much as we can. We've both really grown to enjoy it here and what we've been doing."

The guests are not the only people grateful for the work of Stoltzfus, Ruiz and their predecessors.

"The occupational therapy interns from Alvernia University and Penn State University Berks truly care about the guests of the Mission," said Robert Turchi, Hope Rescue Mission executive director. "When they proposed this idea, I told them I was so proud of them and would love for them to see it through to completion."

Turchi said the guests will especially appreciate the stairlift during the winter and on rainy days because they will no longer have to use the outside ramps to access the basement and second levels.

"The occupational therapy interns are compassionate young people," Turchi said. "My favorite part of serving at the Mission is seeing caring people shine light, love and help into the lives of many people enduring hard times. So many lives are rescued and restored here, and our occupational therapy interns are a special part of that work."

Donations for the installation of a stairlift from the first to second levels can be made at gofund.me/5350f8c2.