OnRamp staff and volunteers gather to pray over Colton and Chrysta before gifting their van.
Yesterday, God moved a mountain for thirteen-year-old Colton and his heroic aunt Chrysta. Colton was born with hydrocephalus, cerebral palsy, cortical blindness, severe spasticity, epilepsy, and seizure disorder, which has left him nonverbal and non-mobile. Tragically, Colton's mom, Jennifer, passed away in 2021 from Stage 4 Cancer. Chrysta then stepped in and adopted Colton, and now serves as his caregiver. Due to Colton's severe health issues, Chrysta needs to transport him to Houston often for specialized care, but they lacked a wheelchair-accessible vehicle, making these trips nearly impossible. Unfortunately, these vehicles are incredibly expensive and beyond what Chrysta could afford.
This is where OnRamp comes in. Rusty Surette at KBTX shared this need with the community, and concerned citizens sent it to us. We invited Cheryl, one of Colton’s nurses, to nominate this deserving family to our ministry. We interviewed Chrysta and were so impressed with her selfless service and her willingness to put her own life on hold to care for her nephew, that we committed to raise the money, whatever it took, to buy her a wheelchair ramp van.
Colton trying out his new van!
This is where Bryan/College Station enters the story. We expected this campaign to take months since these vehicles are so expensive. Instead, it only took a few weeks! Over 100 local donors stepped up to provide more than $20,000 to meet this need. With that money, OnRamp found a mint-condition Honda Odyssey ramp van in Colorado with only 23,000 miles on it, and the seller cut us a great deal! Fun story: the guy who helped us buy the van is an Army vet and to get the van fully serviced for Colton, he took it by the Air Force Academy garage which volunteered to do all the required work at a massive discount. It was great to see Army and Air Force linking arms to serve this sweet family!
Yesterday, we had the privilege of gifting this van to Chrysta and Colton in front of their family, supporters, and friends. As always, we also gift maintenance support for their first year of their ownership along with ongoing prayer and resourcing. We are so grateful to see how God worked through us and through you all to meet this critical need faster than we ever expected. Thank you for caring for Colton! Thank you for supporting OnRamp!
Note that this is OnRamp’s 216th client to receive a free vehicle. All pictures and details shared with client’s permission. To donate towards the next hard-working clients awaiting vehicles, visit our Give page.
KBTX News January 28th 10pm story about Colton’s donation.