Danielle Greve, 24, has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair and a cane to move around.
The Sault woman has not allowed physical challenges to keep her down, and is now working as a part time administrative assistant at StreetCity Realty’s local office at 514 Queen Street East.
However, she arrived at work one morning in March to discover someone, through a selfish act of theft or a senseless prank, had taken away the ramp which assists her to get to the office’s front door.
“Some places in the Sault aren’t accessible for wheelchairs,” Danielle said, adding the theft of the ramp was a nasty shock.
“I was disappointed,” Danielle told SooToday.
Danielle’s father Rob, a Sault firefighter, approached his fellow Sault Ste. Marie Professional Fire Fighters Association members.
With the financial help of the Association and Jim Mills, Healthgear Medical Mart president, a new aluminum ramp has been purchased for Danielle and is on its way.
“I was happy about that,” said Danielle, who performs various office duties, including social media work, for StreetCity Realty’s local branch.
A new aluminium ramp costs approximately $500, said Rob Greve, Danielle’s father.
“Danielle takes everything in stride. I hope whoever took the ramp has good use for it, and we’ll put another one there,” Rob said.
“We’re very active in charity and we have a charity account for things like this, and this falls under that mandate. I felt a bit of disappointment (the ramp was stolen) but there are things we can’t always control, and we found a solution to fix it,” said Richard Bishop, Sault Ste. Marie Professional Fire Fighters Association president.
“We’re a big part of the community and the community’s a big part of us. We enjoy doing things like this, it’s not for the fanfare, it’s because our community’s important to us,” Bishop said.
“I’m very grateful to the Fire Fighters Association, it’s wonderful,” said Jean Morrison, StreetCity Realty local broker and branch manager.
“We didn’t think somebody would take the ramp, but they walked away with it. It was quite large, about four feet wide. There’s a lot of good things that happen in the downtown but it’s just not right that somebody did that. It’s rotten to steal a wheelchair ramp,” Morrison said.
“It’s kind of shocking someone would stoop that low to take something like that. It’s great the firefighters association did that because we’re new in town, it is an expensive item and it really makes it easier for Danielle to get in and out the office.”
For now, until the new ramp arrives, Danielle is assisted by having someone push her wheelchair up and over a small step in front of the office’s front door.
“Danielle’s a really sweet girl,” Morrison said.
“I was introduced to her through Yes You Can (an employment consulting firm with a local office) and they told me Danielle had been having struggles being hired by people, but she had attended college and gotten her certificate in administration, had some previous experience in computer technology and marketing, so for us she is a perfect fit.”
“She’s very pleasant, a lovely girl, always on time…after some extra training was completed I asked her to stay on, and she’s great. We’re a new business in town and she’s eager to learn new things,” Morrison said.
