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Date: 12/14/2022
AMHERST – The Senior Center has acquired a new van to transport elderly Amherst residents. The van was donated to Senior Services by the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority (PVTA). It is wheelchair accessible.
Director of Senior Services Hayley Bolton explained the van’s capabilities for carrying multiple passengers and wheelchairs at a time.
“It’s a paratransit van. It seats eight people but with the capacity to take two wheelchairs…There’s a way to affix the individual’s wheelchair to the van so they can stay seated in the wheelchair while we transport them,” Bolton said.
Through the right connections, Bolton was able to secure the van via donation. She prioritized this goal after hearing many people struggling with transportation.
“We got a little bit of help from the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority as well as our state Rep. Mindy Domb. She had connected me with Paul Burns at PVTA. Since I got here, I’ve heard people talk about how there’s not enough transportation options, that folks really need more ways to get around that are affordable. I knew it was one of my top priorities to get a van back in place and particularly one that has a wheelchair lift so that we can take folks who are non-ambulatory, which means they’re using either a walker or a wheelchair to get around,” Bolton said.
This van marks the reemergence of the Senior Center’s medical ride program after a COVID-19-induced hiatus, but is the first time the center can offer wheelchair accessible transit.
“We had a medical ride that was volunteer-driven before the [coronavirus] pandemic but with the onset of COVID [-19] we had to shut that down to keep people safe, so it’s been quite a while since we operated a van service. But even still, when we had that program we were using minivans, so we still couldn’t take people who had walkers or wheelchairs so we were limited in that aspect,” Bolton said.
The program will initially focus on medical rides, but Bolton has high hopes for the program’s expansion.
“Our older folks might need help getting around, so transportation is a lifeline that keeps them active in the community. It helps them age in place, which is what’s really important to us…We are going to focus at least initially on medical rides, because that’s what there’s such an acute need for here in the valley. But we do hope to expand that to trips to the Senior Center, monthly and weekly grocery shopping trips…Eventually we’ll be moving to use some ARPA funds to hire drivers for the van, and then folks will be able to call the Senior Center directly to book a ride,” Bolton said.
Bolton made a point to thank everyone who helped along the way to make the center’s acquisition of the van a reality.
“I have a really fantastic support structure here, both at the town level and with our state representatives, and just with my staff and my volunteers,” Bolton said. “My volunteer and outreach coordinator Julia MacFadven put her heart and soul into making sure that we have this van and getting people to go pick it up and bringing it to Amherst, so I just always want to thank the people around me.”