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INSIDE
‘Use
it or lose it’ is the fear of community van organizers
By Meg Olson
Local organizers
of the community van are asking the Whatcom Transportation
Authority (WTA) to think twice before they cancel the twice-monthly
Safety Net Bus Link trip to Bellingham, because they can’t
pick up the slack.
“We’re
having a hard time getting enough volunteers to man the community
service van, so we can’t
guarantee that safety net,” said Joan Roberts. “We
asked them not to take away that service without overhauling
our volunteer program.”
Roberts
said the community van program now had 14 trained volunteer
drivers, but only four who could commit to a regular run, such
as a twice weekly swimming trip for seniors or a weekly evening
bus to Blaine for kids wanting to stay late. “Volunteers
have conflicting schedules, family activities,” Roberts
pointed out.
Roberts
said the community van board is suggesting the WTA needs to
fund a paid administrator position before the van can take
over the Safety Net trips. Volunteer coordinator Cheryl Fitzgerald
is now putting in 65 hours a month putting the van’s
schedule together, coordinating drivers and taking reservations.
In the first eight months the van operated last year, it ran
38 trips on 38 days, carrying 300 people. In 2004, from
January to the end of August, there were 123 trips on 96 days,
with 650 passengers. Roberts said the WTA wanted to see 364
trips a year and 1,274 passengers to consider the program a
success. “That’s
too much for a volunteer coordinator,” Roberts said.
Roberts
also said the need for more volunteer drivers was growing
as people become more aware of the van’s availability. “There’s
lots and lots of demand, we just can’t fill it because
we don’t have the drivers,” she said. “We’re
really trying to get parents of kids in after school activities
to participate. We could send the van down every afternoon
if we had 20 parents and each one drove only once a month.” There
is a training scheduled for September 30. Interested volunteers,
or riders, can call 945-2844 for information and reservations.
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