Lutheran Social Services of Minnesota Residents
It began with a Facebook post, a longshot request from Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota Designated Coordinator Becky Narveson to Minneapolis-based Safe Step Walk-In Tub Co. of Minnesota. In her request, Ms. Narveson told the story of four incredible ladies, all with intellectual disabilities, who have lived together for more than 30 years. The women are cared for 24 hours a day, but their needs have become more challenging recently.
Their one outstanding need: a safe way to take a bath. The women currently have a cold-tiled step-in shower that not only doesn’t fit their needs, it’s not safe. The answer: a hydrotherapeutic walk-in tub. Yet, with a limited budget the solution seemed out of reach until the Facebook post reached the desk of company president Craig Dauffenbach and his wife, Safe Step COO Stephanie Dauffenbach.
This would not be the couple’s first time changing lives. They have been providing tubs free of charge to those in need for three years through their company’s national program of giving, Safe Step Cares. They have donated tubs to a man in Omaha who had been hit by an uninsured drunk driver, a teenager in Chicago with cerebral palsy, a mother and daughter in South Dakota who were in a motorcycle accident and a Good Samaritan in Duluth who was hit by a truck while pulling a little boy from an automobile accident. All received free tubs.
But until the Facebook request, no requests had been made in their hometown and place of business, Minneapolis. As they have in the past, the Dauffenbachs decided to change lives, in this case four lives with one gift when they provided and installed one of their best state-of-the-art tubs though Safe Step Cares. And the Dauffenbachs personally attended the donation along with the Becky Narveson, the requestor. Finally, the Dauffenbachs announced that Safe Step Walk-In Tub Co. of Minnesota is closed its headquarters in order to allow its valued team member witness the donation. Dozens of team members were present at this giveaway.
“We were moved by this story and we are in the business of changing lives every day,” said Craig Dauffenbach. “We see a need and we are pleased to help these precious members of our community with a life-changing gift. It was our pleasure to award them with a free walk-in tub through this program of giving, Safe Step Cares.”
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