By JERRY WOLFFE
Thanks to a group of volunteers,
a 14-year-old girl can now use an accessible bathroom in her home built through
funds from the nonprofit, “Rebuilding Together.”
Molly McCullough, has cerebral
palsy, and is non-verbal. She lives in her family’s West Bloomfield two-story
home with her parents, and her four siblings.
There was no accessible bathroom
on the first floor of their home and it was becoming increasingly difficult for
Molly’s parents, Scott and Kristen, to give her a bath or use the toilet since
it meant carrying her up a flight of stairs to the bathroom.
Support coordinator Karen
Hollingsworth, who visits the home monthly, helped the family find a way to
build an accessible bathroom for Molly in the garage. Rebuilding Together had a
budget of $2,000 for the project. Hollingsworth, who has worked for MORC since
July 1972, said materials cost $1,300 and “donated” materials and labor was
worth about $13,000.
The room is nine-feet by 10-feet
with beautiful tile on the floors and walls. It also has a roll-in shower and a
roll-in-shower chair that was donated for Molly’s use.
Quotes from home remodelers for
an accessible bathroom were in the range of “$20,000 and above,” she said.
However, Hollingsworth’s son-in-law, Chuck Riley, and her daughter, Becky,
volunteer through “Rebuilding Together.”
An application was made to
Rebuilding Together and a gift of $2,000 was approved.
Each department in the Home
Depot store in White Lake Township gave discounts on materials and there was an
additional corporate discount, she
said.
“The original supply list was
under $2,000 but when the discounts were applied, it was under $1,000.”
Volunteers included
electricians, plumbers and other trade workers who installed everything for the
bathroom, including drywall, insulation and extending heating ducts to warm the
bathroom.
The 90-square-foot bathroom
contains a shower that is six-feet wide and three-feet deep as well as a
vanity, toilet and sink. Parts of the walls were reinforced so grab bars can be
installed, if needed. The donated roll-in-shower chair would have cost about
$2,000 if the McCullough family had to
purchase one.
Hollingsworth noted that Molly
is ecstatic with the new addition to their home. “Now that her new bathroom is
done, Molly has had her first shower in it and loved it,” McCullough’s mother
said.
