You might catch sight of a New Gloucester Rides car on the road anywhere from Auburn to Lewiston to Poland to Portland to South Portland or to Scarborough. Our local volunteer rides program has been helping folks 50+ or with disabilities get to medical and dental appointments since early August.
We regularly hear how helpful our service is for family members whose work schedules make it tough to drive parents to much-needed appointments. We have also been serving people who are temporarily unable to drive themselves as they recover from surgery. We fill an unaccustomed gap for those who have recently decided it is time to give up driving. We provide weekly rides for long-term recurring appointments.
Our drivers make a difference in people’s lives. We feel tremendously rewarded hearing:
“Thank you, I am so grateful this program exists and really appreciate your
service to the community!”
“You have started a new community service that will be invaluable.”
“The ride was very much appreciated!”
We seek additional volunteer drivers to meet community needs. As word has spread, ride requests are coming in rapidly. Drivers use their own cars and are covered by AARP additional liability insurance. Please fill out a Volunteer Driver Application or call NG Rides at 207 705 4721 for more info. This is a wonderful way to give back (or forward), we can all relate to needing reliable transportation.
In other exciting news, in the New Year we plan to expand the rides program to include Gray. We will keep you posted.
~ Connie Justice
