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Charlotte County's Dial-A-Ride Acquires Van with Wheelchair Access
Charlotte Dial-A-Ride's John Castell and Sharon McGladdery discussed the importance of Charlotte Dial-A-Ride as an affordable source of transportation in rural New Brunswick on an episode of CHCO-TV's Southwest Magazine.
Headquartered in St. Stephen, New Brunswick but servicing residents across Charlotte County, Charlotte Dial-A-Ride is a charity that has been solving transportation needs in rural Southwest New Brunswick for almost two decades by placing residents in need of a drive to appointments in city centres with volunteer drivers.
"When we started as an organization, we were mainly servicing the needs of people requiring a drive to doctors' appointments, but now we are seeing increased need for rides to jobs," said McGladdery.
The charity is now able to service even more residents in need thanks to the recent aquisition of a wheelchair accessible van. "This allows us to accomodate Dial-A-Ride clients in wheelchairs more easily," said Castell. "A client in Blacks Harbour actually was our first user of the van this past month. If a client is in a wheelchair, they just let us know when they call to reserve a ride, and we make accommodations to have the van available"
The alternative transportation organization was the first of its kind in New Brunswick but now there are 19 across the province offering transportation services to people in rural communities who need help getting to everything from job opportunities and appointments to grocery stores. Dial-A-Ride not only provided an inspiration to other groups like it, it's still the closest thing to a public transportation service for residents of rural Southwest New Brunswick. One of the added benefits to having Dial-A-Ride in the community is that a lot of Charlotte County residents are able to stay in their homes in rural locations without needing to relocate to urban centers or group living homes when medical appointments become more frequent and their ability to drive is no longer possible.
"We are thrilled that we allow people to stay in their homes longer," said Castell.
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