The Morden Community Handi-van service celebrated the recent arrival of its new vehicle last week with a thank-you to the sponsors who helped make it possible.
Brian Nedohin, who is chairperson of the handi-van board as well as one of the volunteer drivers, noted that it happened entirely through local support.
“There was no provincial money in here at all. This is all from local donors,” he said as the new van was shown off on the grounds of the Morden research station. “I’m very happy with this community. They have supported us very well.”
The vehicle came at a cost of about $101,000, and it was all raised through sponsorships and donations. The sponsors include the Morden Elks Lodge, Morden Community Thrift Shop, United Way Pembina Valley, Decor Cabinets, RM of Stanley, and City of Winkler.
Names on the van also pay tribute to a few individual supporters and donors, including Lori Willcocks, a board member who passed away this past winter, and John H. Dyck with funds from his estate along with funds from Bill and Colleen Lyne.
It is replacing an older vehicle that Nedohin said could no longer be kept up and maintained properly.
“We then started to work on this vehicle … it’s also a back load just like the other one was, so we have a ramp that comes down and then we can fasten the little strips that we have inside on to the front of the wheelchair,” he explained.
Nedohin also noted they were fortunate to be able to have the van retrofitted here rather than in the United States.
“We are happy that it did stay in Canada because with the tariffs that were being employed, we thought, okay, that could add $20,000 to the cost of the vehicle.”
Nedohin commented on how well the service is used even with trips to and from Winkler, which has a public transportation service but it does not go outside Winkler aside from trips to Boundary Trails Health Centre.
“They do not offer their service on Sunday, so we still get calls from Winkler to go to various locations, and if people from Winkler want to go to other locations outside the area, not just the hospital but some place else, they’ll call us because we are able to provide that service to them to any location,” he said.
“For some … it’s the only way they can get from point A to point B,” said Nedohin. “We only got this van about three months ago, and it’s now got 6,000 kilometres on it. We’ve done a number of trips to Winnipeg in the last three weeks … so not only locally but also taking patients to hospitals and various other locations. This is definitely a vital service.”
