Burnaby resident Ethel Presly just celebrated her 79th birthday, and she wants to get outside more often. With help from Burnaby’s ScandiaCare Society, her wish may come true soon enough.
Presly, 79, lives in Dania, a Burnaby care home for seniors with complex needs. She can no longer drive and needs help with transportation, like many other seniors at her Burnaby home. ScandiaCare Society, which fundraises for Dania, Normanna and the Swedish Canadian Rest Home, is raising money to buy a new bus to help seniors with transportation, which is good news for Presly.
“I want to go out more often, to enjoy life and be with people outside,” Presly said. “What we need is to have our own bus to take us anywhere and everywhere, a bus that can accommodate everyone who would like to join us.”
ScandiaCare Society is hoping to raise $125,000 for a 24-seat bus with a wheelchair lift and rails, and removable seats for wheelchairs.
The bus program, which the society hopes to have running by 2014, will serve residents from all three Burnaby facilities, which together house roughly 500 seniors.
The bus will be available for all kinds of trips residents may need to make, whether it’s an appointment with the doctor or dentist, meeting family members, or an organized day trip.
The bus will also be available, for a minimal charge, to seniors in Burnaby who do not live in ScandiaCare homes but would like to visit the nearest facility for social activities, meals and
music programs.
“Social interaction is invaluable to seniors as it increases their quality of life and longevity. This program will be therapeutic and beneficial for seniors dealing with isolation,” said executive director Margaret Douglas-Matthews in a press release.
While ScandiaCare has not formally launched the bus fundraising campaign, the society has already raised $53,000, which leaves $72,000 to go.
Proceeds from a recent garden party celebration at Normanna went towards the cause, and volunteers and supporters have been quietly collecting funding, according to ScandiaCare.
Meanwhile, Presly is looking forward to getting out and about in her community.
“It would be healthier and above all, change our outlook in life. Any financial assistance would be highly appreciated,” she said.
To make a donation, contact ScandiaCare’s development officer Linda Foster by email at [email protected], or call 604-515-3332.
