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Seniors campaign for car

Kettle River Seniors are now able to provide a ride service for seniors to medical and hospital appointments.
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Anne Karpiak of the Kettle River Seniors stands beside the group’s Wheels of Wellness vehicle at the fall fair last weekend. The group is working to raise awareness of and funds for the car.

Transportation in a rural area like the West Boundary where public transit doesn’t exist can be a real pain. It can be even more of a pain if you are a senior without a vehicle who needs to get to a doctor or hospital appointment.

Knowing that the best way to tackle a problem is to start working on it yourself the Kettle River Seniors (Branch #102) applied for a New Horizons for Seniors Grant in 2011 that provided them with what they call their Wheels of Wellness Car.

With it they take seniors for free (but donations are accepted) to appointments. They also occasionally take seniors on social outings, workshops or meetings.

The group had an information table at the Rock Creek and Boundary Fall Fair last weekend to let local residents know of the service, to canvas for volunteer drivers and to sell raffle tickets to raise money to cover the operating costs of the car. Winning tickets will be drawn on Dec. 9 with five prizes ranging in value from $25 to $325.

The Kettle River Seniors started as a club in the mid ’70s.

In addition to putting the wellness vehicle on the road the group also produces The Echo newspaper, which comes out every two weeks, they help their community whenever they can and they invite special speakers to their meetings.

Their literature at the fair booth indicated they hope to visit other senior organizations in the area in the future.

Through a second New Horizons Federal Grant Kettle River Seniors are organizing a series of workshops titled “Empowerment of Seniors”.

The next one scheduled is a four-day workshop over two weekends entitled Introduction to Muscle Testing coming up at the end of this month (Sept. 28/29 and Oct 5/6).

Volunteer drivers must have a valid driver’s license, do a criminal records check and have a driver’s abstract done. Costs will be reimbursed. If interested please contact Isabella (Issy) McLean at 250-446-2977.

For more information or to register for a workshop phone 250-528-7433 or email empowermentofseniors@gmail.com