For residents of Gravelbourg and area who need a ride to Regina or Moose Jaw for medical appointments, a new transportation service has sprung up to meet their needs.
The Gravelbourg Cares Shuttle Service hit the road at the beginning of July and makes weekly trips to Moose Jaw and Regina for people of all ages — but particularly seniors — who require medical or wellness services not found in the community. Occasional trips are also made to Assiniboia or Swift Current if a driver is available.
A celebration of the launch took place at the town office in mid-July, with residents, sponsors, dignitaries, volunteers, and donors in attendance.
The Gravelbourg Cares Shuttle Service Inc. can be found on Facebook.
“We’re very happy to have it off the ground,” said Linda Roberts, a director with the charitable organization that oversees the service. “Our launch was almost exactly one year since we started working on it, so it was a pretty intense.”
“It’s awesome,” echoed Mayor Robert Bowler. “It will be a good thing (not only) for seniors, but everybody (including youths). It will give people a reason to stay in town.”
The shuttle idea came from Roberts and her husband Brian, she explained. They moved to Gravelbourg 10 years ago and grew to love the town. They found that the community was well-served with the necessary medical personnel — including three doctors, a dentist, chiropractor and massage therapist — but they were always referred to Moose Jaw or Regina to see specialists.
They wanted to continue living within the small-town atmosphere and didn’t want to move to the big city as they aged, she continued. The only thing they thought was missing from the community was transportation to their medical appointments.
Roberts approached another resident, Lynn Holmes, about starting up a shuttle service and the latter jumped on board. They then recruited Betty Hawkins; all three became directors of the developing organization.
They first gauged community interest during the annual summer solstice festival in June 2018. They set up a booth and asked who would use the service. They received more than 100 signatures in a couple of hours before packing up because of rain.
The women then started working on a possible shuttle service. A month later, they became an incorporated non-profit; they will soon become a registered charity.
The directors found 10 drivers with experience, including retired emergency personnel and former long-haul truckers. They also recruited four volunteer dispatchers, a retired lawyer for the legal work and an accountant for bookkeeping.
Moose Jaw’s Knight Ford Lincoln helped the organization find a van by purchasing a 2017 Ford transit van for it from an auction.
Roberts, Holmes, and Hawkins made several presentations to service clubs, businesses, groups, residents, and town council to acquire funding. The town, Nutrien Ag Solutions, B&A Petroleum, and the Gravelbourg Lions Club became the main sponsors.
The shuttle service doesn’t charge a fee since that would make it a taxi service, she stated. Instead, passengers are encouraged to make a $40 donation for a round-trip to Moose Jaw and a $50 donation for a round-trip to Regina.
Ten people have ridden the shuttle since July 1, but this was expected since the organization planned to start slow to work out any kinks, Roberts explained. Organizers are now booking rides for August, while they expect operations to hit full speed in September. They will assess the service’s performance in October.
The shut down of the Saskatchewan Transportation Company (STC) did have some effect on the town, but not as badly as in other communities, Roberts added. When it shut down in May 2017, the bus was coming only once a week. While it did have some passenger service, municipal businesses were mostly using it to send and receive products.
