The wheels on the bus will keep going round and round, thanks to a local charitable group.
Guys Who Care of North Simcoe continued their philanthropic ways this fall with a sizeable donation to the Wheels 4 Wheels program of the Huronia Seniors Volunteer Care Team (HSVCT).
“HSVCT uses a specially designed bus to provide transport to wheelchair-bound clients in the local region,” said Guys Who Care co-founder Andrew Combes.
“Their current bus is nearing the end of its useful life and the donation of $14,300 by Guys Who Care has given the lift needed to ensure a timely replacement of the current bus.”
HSVCT president Sharon Randall said the non-profit’s current bus is nearing the end of its lifespan so the need for a new vehicle is very real.
“It’s about 10 years old and pretty tired,” Randall said, noting a new vehicle will cost close to $100,000 since it requires a special lift that carries mobility devices into the large-capacity van.
“Because our van is a large size, we can carry four people in wheelchairs as well as people seated. We would have liked to have a purchase order in place, but COVID has slowed us down.”
Huronia Seniors was founded in 1996 and started operating its first Wheels 4 Wheels van four years later.
“I'm happy to say there's a lot more accessible transportation available now than when we started in 2000,” Randall said, noting that transportation still remains a challenge for those living in rural areas and smaller towns.
“It's so limited, and people can be so isolated. So while other services have come on board, we remain the only one that is available 24/seven, basically. We operate evenings, weekends, outside of the normal transportation options.”
Wheels 4 Wheels helps bring people to not just medical and personal appointments, but also offers group outings for those staying at long-term care homes.
“That's one of the reasons we need that large size (van). We've been able to take people to weddings and graduations and family Christmas parties and all those things that don't happen nine to five.
“So while we do medical appointments as well, and that is probably 50 or 60% of our operations, the quality of life, I'm going to call it quality of life events are the things that our drivers enjoy the most and that I think brings the most to our community.”
Randall notes that all drivers are volunteers as well as everyone involved with the organization.
“We’re absolutely grassroots,” she said. “We are always recruiting volunteer drivers and right now because of COVID, some of our drivers have had to step back because they are senior citizens themselves so many of them are at a higher risk.”
As for Guys Who Care, the group had more than 40 members attend their most recent meeting and employed online conferencing to vote on and then arrive at the charity of choice in real time.
“Guys Who Care have now been in existence for five years and in that time have raised and donated over $205,000 to 12 local charities,” Combes said. “The Guys’ organization has no overheads and thus every single dollar raised goes directly to the beneficiary charities.”
Combes said the group is always looking for new members.
“That is the only way we can grow the giving we provide and become ever more meaningful to the charities in this community,” he said, noting there are now 125 to 130 men registered as members.
“This group of gentlemen is not in itself a charity and it exists as a group of like-minded individuals that like to help out in a very practical way - by getting together twice a year to raise substantial sums in donations.
At each meeting, three names are drawn from a hat and the three chosen Guys give a “very short and pithy pitch” on why the group as a whole should choose his preferred charity.
“After three pitches and a short Q and A, the Guys vote by ballot with the winning charity receiving all the funds raised at the meeting,” Combes said, noting the group has added a homegrown charity database to its website in an effort to broaden the scope of the charities it considers.
“That gives the base information such as registered name, registration number, type of activity and links to the CRA reports. In addition, the Guys went out to each charity they found and asked for a written description of what the organization does for the local community.”
For more information on Guys Who Care, click here. For more on HSVCT and Wheels 4 Wheels, click here.
