Tabor Home is appealing to the community for its support to get the care facility a newer vehicle.
They need to upgrade from the old van which has served the Morden personal care home well but is definitely past its prime.
“Tabor Home has reached an end of an era with the van that our maintenance department uses for picking up materials that they need,” explained board secretary Konrad Loewen. “We’ve had the van for, as far as we know, over 20 years, so you realize this thing has served us well. It’s been taken care of by our staff very well, but it just has come to the end of its life.
“It’s a ‘94, so it’s even older than we’ve had it, so we need to purchase a new or newer vehicle that our maintenance department can use so they can go pick up things that they need, whether that’s for repairs inside the facility or the outside in spring, summer, and fall.”
Loewen noted the van does make a difference for the care and quality of life for their residents.
“Indirectly, it does have an impact because if the maintenance guys can’t get out to purchase and pick up what they need then they can’t really do the work that needs to get done.”
Board chairperson Helena Goerz noted it is also something that would not be funded by the province.
“The RHA does not fund for things like vehicles,” she said. “We kind of asked, ‘Do you have an older fleet vehicle around?’ They don’t really have anything that we would be able to use, so it’s something that we now have to try to find and fundraise.”
“Right now, we’re making a general appeal to the community,” said Loewen. “We’re hoping that maybe there’s a business or someone who has a fleet of vehicles, and they maybe have a vehicle that they don’t need or they’re looking to upgrade a vehicle, so maybe they would be able to donate to Tabor Home.
“There are folks in our community who have supported Tabor Home so very well. Maybe they would like to donate some money towards the purchase of a vehicle. We’re not looking for anything fancy …. a pickup truck … it doesn’t need to be an extended cab or anything like that.”
Goerz said they are uncertain how much they will need to raise at this point.
“We just need something basic to get things locally, to pick up things … it just needs to be serviceable so that it’s reliable for us.”
Anyone who wants to help out can contact Tabor Home for more information or to make a donation to the cause.
“We feel that there’s always good support from the community,” said Goerz, who noted as well that they are also always looking for volunteers to help out at the facility.
“We would love volunteers, either inside chatting with residents, taking them for a walk, playing games with them … or then in the summer time, maintenance often has some mowing or working in the gardens … easy things that people could help out with here.”
