Vashon ‘Rampathon’ winners feel the love

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, August 5, 2025

Before last week, a trip outside for Cynthia Matusky meant a roll of the dice on whether she’d trip and fall into her gravel front yard.

Now a sturdy wooden ramp allows her something most of us take for granted: The ability to easily enter and exit her home.

“That is going to make it so I can get off the porch and down into the yard without falling,” she said.

The new ramp, built at no cost to Matusky, is thanks to the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties’ “Rampathon” program, which each year selects worthy recipients for a new accessibility ramp at their homes at no charge, built by a local building company willing to offer their time and labor.

This year, that local builder was Meade Building Company, and Wednesday, July 30, owner Drew Meade led a team of about 15 employees and apprentices to build the new ramp.

Matusky, after back surgery and a bad fall, uses mobility aids to walk. She can’t feel her left leg, and she shattered her right ankle last year. She and her husband Fred Matusky — both 68 — own a home at Vashon HouseHold’s Sunflower Community Land Trust, a community just two blocks east of the town center.

Cynthia grew up on the island and worked for many years in maintenance at the Vashon Park District. She helped construct the restroom at the Village Green. Fred worked across many now-gone island restaurants as a cook and chef, including the Spinnaker Restaurant, Al and Tony’s Pizzeria and Sound Food. Cynthia and Fred are both disabled and rely on Social Security and disability payments.

The two used to live by the water in a walk-in north end home on Bunker Trail, but when they realized Cynthia would need back surgery, they ultimately decided to sell and move. They found their new home in 2017 at the then-brand new Sunflower development.

Fred’s mother, peace activist and teacher Joy Goldstein, was one of the founders of Vashon HouseHold — and they credit the fact that they still live on the gentrifying island at all to Goldstein and the nonprofit’s work.

Following her back surgery in late 2020, Cynthia used a wheelchair while recuperating. But getting Cynthia into their charming single-family home meant Fred had to tip her wheelchair backwards and drag it back a few feet at a time.

After four months, she was finally able to walk again. But then, last fall, she fell, and broke the ankle on her right side — her good side — in three places, tearing a tendon and stretching a ligament. She came home in December after surgeons had rebuilt her ankle, using a wheelchair for the second time while her body continued to heal.

Cynthia, on the mend, no longer needs the wheelchair but to this day still has difficulty walking. It was her physical therapist who mentioned to Cynthia that she would be a good candidate for the Rampathon. But Cynthia didn’t jump at the idea — so her physical therapist applied on her behalf.

“I thought that somebody else would deserve it more,” Cynthia said. When she got the phone call: “Oh, God, I was shocked.”

Fast forward to the afternoon of Wednesday, July 30, as a crew from Meade Building Company measured, sawed and hammered the new wooden ramp from the couple’s porch to the ground. Interior designer Eva Gonzalez-Vazquez designed the ramp, and office manager Marla Tuchak coordinated with Cynthia and the Master Builders, Drew Meade said.

“We’ve been trying to do [the Rampathon] the last three years on the island, and we hadn’t had any recipients come forward,” Meade said.

But this year, the Vashon Senior Center and the Vashon Care Network helped identify Cynthia as a ramp recipient, said Liz Illg, board president of the Care Network.

“It’ll make a huge impact on their life,” he said. “And I know there are other people on the island who need it. Our hope is that … in years to come, other builders will also get involved with this (program).”

As the crew worked outside, the couple struggled with just how to fully express their gratitude.

Fred Matusky said he was blown away by the kindness of the crew — who shared their hearty lunch with the couple — and said that the goodness of their actions would live on in the house and radiate out into the world, too.

“I’m in the program, in recovery — I don’t drink anymore,” Cynthia said, “[and] gratitude is a huge thing that we pay attention to. My gratitude and my appreciation are just through the roof. What do you do when somebody does something like that for you? You can say ‘thank you,’ but it doesn’t feel like, really, that covers it.”

Here’s at least one way: Cynthia and Fred made cookies the morning of the ramp build for the timber-toting volunteers.

So, too, is the couple immensely thankful for the help of the Vashon Care Closet, which has kept Cynthia stocked with walkers and other mobility tools. And Fred will rest easier knowing his wife isn’t at risk of falling every time she leaves the house.

“It’s interesting how different falling is when you’re in your 60s and when you’re, say, in your teens,” he said.

To learn more about the Rampathon program, visit mbaks.com/community/rampathon.