Nonprofit ride service for elderly, visually impaired back in business
At 87, Jane Watkins of Winter Park still has places to go and people to see. She just doesn’t trust herself to navigate the unnerving highways of Central Florida to get there.
So when a nonprofit transportation network she relied on suspended its service in November, she felt stuck.
“I called my son-in-law and said, ‘This is terrible. Can’t you do something?’ ” Watkins said. “Being a businessman, he knows how to talk with people.”
Jack Miles — once a top state government official and executive for CIGNA and AIG — agreed to look into it, not just for his motherin-law, but also for the 350 other members of ITN Orlando.
An affiliate of the national Independent Transportation Network, the Central Florida organization relies on volunteers and donations to help shuttle residents over 60 and those with limited eyesight to doctor appointments, trips for shopping and social
visits.
Early this month, a reborn ITNOrlando began operations again, thanks to Miles, now chairman of the ITNOrlando board of directors, and $11,500 donated by local members who say the service is essential to their independence.
“The organization had funding problems and a shortage of volunteer drivers,” said Miles of Winter Park, former secretary of the Florida Department of Management Services, the state’s administrative arm. “But what got ITNOrlando back up and running is that the people who needed the charity gave it the money to do that. At the end of the day, they voted with their wallets.”
Miles hopes that new management practices, a new board of directors and a recruitment drive for more volunteers will keep the organization running for the long haul.
The Central Florida service initially began in October 2006. It uses mostly volunteer drivers — in their own cars — who undergo fingerprinting, background checks and training, though when no volunteers are available, the service supplements with paid drivers.
Members in the service area — Altamonte Springs, Casselberry, Longwood, Maitland, northern Orlando, Winter Park and Winter Springs — pay a yearly $60 fee, a pickup fee of $6 to $12 and a charge of $1.75 to $3 a mile, depending on whether they make a reservation in advance or call the same day.
Access Lynx, the region’s paratransit service for people with disabilities, the elderly or those living in poverty, is considerably less, but service is limited by a lack of public transportation funding.
Miles said ITN’s rates are competitive with taxi fare while also providing personal door-to-door service, and it’s more dependable and potentially safer than ride-sharing services that do lessstringent background checks.
“Do you want to put your mother in a car with somebody who knows where your mother lives — and hasn’t had a [fingerprint] background check?” he said.
Lisa Haynes-Henry, a 56-year-old Orlando resident with limited vision, said she turned to ITN six years ago, first in Cincinnati and then Orlando, in large part because of safety and reliability concerns.
“If I book a ride at 10:15, I know whoever is picking me up will be there at 10:15,” she said. “In fact, they’ll usually be there at 10:10 — and they’ll be nice. You get to know the drivers after a while, and they become friends. You get to hear about their children and grandchildren.”
And unlike the handful of senior centers and commercial home health care agencies that offer transportation to the elderly, ITN doesn’t limit members’ travel to medical appointments or grocery shopping. HaynesHenry, for instance, uses ITN to work out at the YMCA and volunteer at the Pet Alliance of Greater Orlando.
“When they suspended service, I had to readjust my whole life. It really slowed me down,” she said. “I don’t like to impose on people to ask for rides. I like the freedom of being independent.”
Members’ fees cover the organization’s overhead — shared office space, a dispatcher, monthly statements and an insurance policy that runs about $8,000 a year.
Drivers have to cover their own gas. But John VonMutius, who began volunteering two years ago, said the experience is worth it.
“I’ve met over 100 people that I would never have met otherwise, and I’m not even full time,” he said. At 65, the College Park retiree has shuttled a Holocaust survivor, concert violinist and an elderly gentleman who crosses town each day to spend four hours with the woman he loves, though she is confined to a nursing home.
“You learn history,” he said.
Zain Durrani, ITNOrlando’s operations manager, said he is hoping to recruit more people like VonMutius. At the moment, the organization has only 15 volunteer drivers, but it could use triple that number.
“It’s a balancing act,” Durrani said. “We want to be able to serve more members, but we really need more drivers to accommodate them. We know how much this helps people to feel like they have their independence back.”
Katherine Freund, president of ITNAmerica, said she has faith that Central Florida will be a success story.
“When the service was being suspended, we sent out a mailing that asked people to consider making a contribution,” she said. “We’ve done that elsewhere and communities didn’t step up. But Orlando did.”