Windsor Senior Citizen Bus Society gets residents out into community
A few years back, a bus pulled into the orchard at Mason Apples just outside Windsor. As the bus slowly wound its way among the rows of trees, senior citizens picked apples from the bus windows. It was a highly enjoyable outing, according to all reports.
The Windsor Senior Citizen Bus Society is a notfor-profit organization that provides accessible transportation services to long term care residents in Hants and Kings County areas. Residents are able to travel to their favourite restaurants, go for picnics, watch parades, and visit local libraries, parks, and beaches.
It was in the early 1980s that retired school bus driver Grant Boyd observed that long term care residents – especially those confined to wheelchairs and no longer able to travel by car – had no way to get out and back into the communities where they had once lived and thrived.
Boyd purchased a retired school bus, remodelled the interior and installed a wheelchair lift. The Windsor Senior Citizen Bus Society was launched on Feb. 6, 1985, with help from local businesspeople, service clubs and representatives from local care facilities.
The Society provides service to residents of Haliburton Place, Dykeland Lodge, Windsor Elms Village, Hants Community Homes and
Wolfville Nursing Home. The Society receives support from local businesses, including Windsor companies, XL Truck & Equipment Services and OK Tire.
Five years ago the board was looking for new members, and Windsor resident Leslie Porter was among those who stepped up to the plate.
“One of our first jobs was to replace an aging bus that was falling apart,” Porter recalls. “Dave White, who had a lot of experience in the bus industry, helped us keep the old bus running for another few years.”
A new fundraising strategy was the first order of business, and someone came up with idea for an online auction. Community members donate new or nearly new items that are then auctioned on Facebook.
“In our very first auction we raised $6,000, and in the second auction the following spring we raised $10,000,” Porter recalls.
Now students are hired to run the auctions and take care of office work and marketing.
In June 2019, the Society purchased a brand new, state-of-the-art, 36-passenger Thomas Freightliner bus. The new bus was dedicated to the memory of Grant Boyd.
“It’s a totally accessible bus, so everybody and anybody can get on,” Porter says.
In 2018, Callow Wheelchair Buses, which provided a similar service in the Halifax area, announced that it was discontinuing its service. WSCBS approached Callow about acquiring its two buses, as well as its Motor Carrier License. The transfer was approved on Jan. 24, 2019, and WSCBS was granted a new name for its bus fleet: The CommUNITY Bus NS.
“The license allows us to serve all of Nova Scotia,” Porter points out. “We do group transportation, and any money we make goes back into the pot towards another new bus down the road and to help subsidize the trips for our core clients at the long term care homes.”