Peace Area Riding for the Disabled is offering its clients another way to and from their lessons. Through donations from local companies, it has been given a bus for free in order to offer its own transportation services.
Volunteer Coordinator Jennifer Wolf says this was a service they first started offering last year but started offering it more following some DTS service reductions earlier in the year.
“We were lucky enough last year to get this bus from 911 (Industrial) and we started our services but people were still using DTS but we found out they weren’t offering it this year.”
“We can transport up to eight passengers at a time, without wheelchairs, and then we can offer programming to anyone and everyone that’s in need,” she adds.
In 2018, 911 Industrial provided the lease for the accessible bus, Windsor Ford agreed to provide and sponsor the bus maintenance and New Horizon Co-op has sponsored all the gas for the vehicle.
Because of the donations, Wolf says they are able offer the service to clients at a discounted rate because they are just paying for the driver.
Since the program has been in place, 34 people are using it on a regular basis. Wolf believes this actually works out better for some clients than using DTS.
“A lot of times we would get people that would have to come out an hour ahead of their lesson just because of the scheduling with DTS. With us, if possible we pick them up about half an hour prior to their lesson so that they have a minimal wait time.”
The city took over ownership of the DTS on September 1st. Any clients wanting to use the service or find out more can contact PARDS main office.