Vets get new van, transport for disabled vets
Jason Shueh/Valley Press The driver of the vet mobile, that wished to be known only as “Ed,” is part of the Disabled American Veterans Volunteer Transportation Network, a program that helps disabled vets get to hospitals and other necessary locations.
What if you were disabled, stranded, unable to drive yourself to the veterans’ hospitals that could take care of you?
The Disabled American Veterans Volunteer Transportation Network (DAV) of Sanders County is here to help. If veterans can enter a van unaided, there’s a van service able to take them to their medical appointments, often as far away Helena. According the Sanders County DAV coordinator Dick Wells, the vans save veterans effort and gas money.
“We’re here to serve veterans,” he said. “Everything we do goes toward that.”
This year, the Sanders County DAV used local donations to help them purchase a brand new van with four-wheel drive which Wells said will be safer on rough, winter roads. The 2008 Ford Taurus X is decorated with red, white and blue DAV logos and the names of 15 local businesses who donated money. According to Wells, the new van cost DAV $29,000 — $13,500 of which came from local donors. The rest came from a fund administered by the national DAV organization.
Though the old van was almost new — a 2006 model — Wells said they needed a four-wheel drive vehicle.
“Highway 200 is all the justification we need,” Wells said.
The 2006 van is being donated to the Missoula County DAV and will still visit Sanders County to help when the local DAV needs to be in two places at once.
The new Taurus is the Sanders County DAV’s third van since the transportation program started in January 2007. Wells they tend to go through vans quickly because of the rough driving conditions
“Of all the transportation network communities, Thompson Falls is the most remote,” Wells said. “We don’t go anywhere without it being a 200-mile trip.”
On average, volunteer drivers spend between six and 14 hours driving per trek. The Sanders County DAV racked up 50,000 miles on the 2006 van before handing it over to Missoula.
Wells said there are a lot of veterans in the county who use the service. According to him, three years ago, there were 1,500 veterans living in Sanders County. If the number was correct, one out of every seven people living in Sanders County is a veteran.
“That number’s gone up since then,” Wells added.
The number of veterans using the Sanders County DAV also has increased. The group organized three times as many van trips in 2008 than in a similar time period in 2007. Wells said there were 19,000 trips total in the state of Montana last year, all made by volunteer drivers. Besides paid meals (usually fast food), volunteers’ only reward for their extensive hours of service is the thanks of the veterans.
“When volunteers take a veteran to a health appointment and they say ‘thank you,’ that’s a payday,” Wells said. “You have never felt as gratified you do when you do this because there’s a real need.”
Wells said he currently has 15 volunteer drivers on his list, though not all those people are actually available at any given time. Some DAV drivers can only get behind the wheel during certain seasons or during certain times of the day. Half of the local drivers are snowbirds, Wells said, only available to drive in the summer. Holiday weekends, like the Fourth of July, can be especially hard to coordinate because volunteers were spending time with their families.
“We always need volunteers,” Wells said. “The more drivers we have, the greater flexibility we have to meet the need.”
For more information or to schedule a ride, call Wells at 242-0217.