LEWISTON – D’Youville Pavilion started getting the calls at 8 a.m.

How do I help George Sidebotham get a ramp?

I have a ramp, how can I give it to him?

I know how to build a ramp, where do I go?

Sidebotham had spent months desperately trying to get someone somewhere to help him build a wheelchair ramp so he could enter his Poland home for visits. On Thursday, hours after his story appeared in the Sun Journal, he got all the help he could ever want.

“It’s amazing,” he said.

Sidebotham, 57, had a heart attack four years ago. He survived the crisis, but suffered major complications after surgery. He’s been a d’Youville resident ever since.

Sidebotham has worked hard to regain his life. He’s struggled with twice-daily therapy sessions, he’s learned how to stand, get in and out of a car, and navigate his wheelchair almost completely blind. He may never live on his own again, but he could go home for visits.

But his house has front stairs and Sidebotham can’t navigate stairs.

He’s been home only a few times in the past four years. Each visit went badly. Recently, his family gave up trying to get him up the stairs, wheeling him instead into the garage and backyard so he could at least play with his three dogs.

Sidebotham and his wife, a fabricator with Auburn Manufacturing, didn’t have the estimated $1,500 to build a front-door ramp. Sidebotham said he tried getting help from MaineCare, local charities, a disability rights group and Maine U.S. Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, but to no avail.

On Thursday his story appeared in the Sun Journal.

Help flooded in.

By noon, the d’Youville nursing home had received a half-dozen calls from people wanting to help, including one from a man who had a ramp to donate. Collins and Snowe office staffers called to see how they could help. The Sun Journal received a half-dozen calls and e-mails from readers looking for ways to help. Online, Sun Journal bloggers offered to build a ramp, donate a pre-built ramp or give money.

“It won’t be a lot but I want to help where I can,” wrote one person posting as “NH.”

After trying for so long to find help, Sidebotham was touched by the sudden flood of offers.

“One organization called that I’ve never even heard of,” he said.

By 2 p.m., Snowe’s staffers had the best possibility of the day: YouthBuild Lewiston, which teaches leadership, construction skills and volunteerism to high school dropouts, agreed to build a ramp.

A representative from Snowe’s office and a construction supervisor are scheduled to meet with Sidebotham today.