Article: Redcliffe Community Bus Service's desperate plea for volunteers

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Redcliffe Community Bus Service's desperate plea for volunteers

Redcliffe Community Bus Service's desperate plea for volunteers

    by: Staff writers, Redcliffe & Bayside Herald
    From: Quest Newspapers
    May 30, 2012 12:00AM

The Redcliffe Community Bus may need to cut its services if more people do not volunteer to drive it.

Each week the bus is used for two shopping trips, a trip to the library, a members' outing, and several other charters to not-for-profit organisations and nursing homes.

President Lesley Penny said the service, which had been operating on the Peninsula for 31 years, was desperate for volunteers to keep those trips going.

"We have nine drivers ...  we need at least another four or five or we'll have to curtail what we do,'' she said.
Publicity officer June Wilkinson said they had recently lost a few volunteer drivers and were losing another one soon.

"It would be a  real shame if some of our charters were cut  as so many elderly people in the area rely on us, but we can't load our current drivers up with too many shifts,'' she said.

Ms Wilkinson said the service had 740 members who regularly went on day trips.

"For a lot of older people going on little trips to the shopping centre gives them something to look forward to and by offering this service we are getting them out of nursing homes even for just one day of the week,'' she said.

Ms Penny said aside from providing transportation, there were volunteer helpers on the door-to-door bus to help people on and off, and with their groceries and library books.

Lifetime member Anne Coleman, 72, is in a wheelchair and said she could not praise the ``wonderful service'' enough.

The retiree said she used it to get to and from the library and to go on regular outings.

"They're so obliging, so attentive,'' she said.

"To get to the library would cost me about $20 in a taxi, so that would be $40 all up, so I just wouldn't be able to go, it would be too expensive,'' she said.

"If it wasn't for them I would be sitting at home looking at my four walls.''

For those with an MR (medium rigid truck) or HR (heavy rigid truck) licence who want to volunteer, phone 0410 461 562.