The ripple of soaring gas prices isn’t just hurting drivers. A free cruiser program operated by the Shriners to transport children from all over B.C. to Vancouver for medical treatment is also feeling the pinch.
Kristal Tremblay remembers when her son was sprawled out on a sofa and transfixed by the cartoons on the TV screen on one of the specially equipped buses in the Shriners Care Cruiser Program. He was unusually calm for a boy with Down syndrome during the six hour bus ride from B.C. Children’s back to their former home in Enderby.
The free ride offers families a way to come to Vancouver for specialty pediatric care from as far away as Prince George, Vancouver Island and the Alberta border.
The cruiser saves Tremblay about $150 per person compared to taking a Greyhound bus from Enderby and accommodates wheelchairs and stretchers. It has a fridge, microwave, and medical supplies.
“There were times where Tucker was on medication that needed to be refrigerated. And they have a refrigerator in the water cooler that is on the bus, so it was really great we could have access,” Tremblay said.
As with drivers affected by soaring gas prices that reached $1.50 per litre recently, the cruiser program is facing cuts reducing its operations from six to four days a week. Recent gas prices are particularly hard-hitting for the program because within the last 10 to 15 years, the Shriner’s membership in B.C. and Yukon has dwindled from roughly 3,000 to 1,600 fundraisers, according to executive director Tracy Cromwell.
Cromwell says Shriners Care for Kids needs to raise more than $1 million to keep up with operating costs. The program has five cruisers and six professional drivers, and transports approximately 3,500 people a year, according to director of transportation Jim Harrison.
“If we needed more money we use to be able to say to our members, we need to get out there and sell more raffle tickets, we need to get out and do more pancake breakfasts,” Cromwell said.
“But we don’t have the same number of members to mobilize anymore, and the grassroots fundraising that we use to do isn’t working so well anymore. So we’re looking at new ways to let people know that we’re happily accepting their donations.”
When Tremblay heard about funding roadblocks facing the cruiser program, her mind reeled from thinking about other families dependent on the service.
“I know countless other people who use this bus to get their children to and from Vancouver and where they live. If these kids were going without these buses, they would be going without these appointments,” she said.
“For my family, had we not relocated [to Abbotsford] it would have been completely devastating because we’re in an area where they’re not travelling through very often. Which would have meant less availability to get to appointments.”
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