For the first quarter of Fiscal Year 15 at the Shenandoah Area Agency on Aging, WellTran staff – Director of Transportation Bob Haas, Dispatcher Sandi Kirkland, Customer Service Assistant Lea Smith and drivers Joe Cunningham, Winnie Elliott, Grace Evans, Dennis Flury, Samantha Gray-Parlett, John Hamman, Kathy McFarland, Jimmy Pomeroy, John Scanlon, Ron Wike and Barbara Williams -have logged 3,000 rides for seniors and for persons 18 and older with disabilities. Averaging 1,000 trips a month throughout our service area, mostly for medical appointments and treatments, the number of rides is already 12% higher than the same three months last year.
SAAA’s WellTran began providing service in 2009 and is supported by grants through the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation that help cover the cost of vehicles and operations. In addition this year the United Way of the Northern Shenandoah Valley, the United Way of Page County, Rappahannock Electric Cooperative Foundation and the Newton B. Shingleton Fund have provided the 20% match for two accessible vans that will be added to the WellTran fleet.
WellTran staff work incredibly hard to meet many individual needs. In rural Page County, a monthly WellTran ride includes filling up gallon jugs with spring water for a woman who has no running water in her home. In Clarke County, rides are provided on a regular basis for a young woman who is both blind and a wheelchair user so that she can continue her education at Lord Fairfax Community College. Throughout the valley, people are being brought to dialysis and cancer treatments, veterans are depending on WellTRan for rides to the VA in Martinsburg and rare but unusual requests like wheelchair accessible transportation from a nursing home to visit with family on holidays are so often accommodated.
Kudos to WellTran not just for 1,000 rides a month but also for making lives a thousand times better!
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