Volunteers Fueled By More Than Gasoline

By Nancy K. Crevier

Volunteers in Newtown use their own vehicles to answer emergency calls, transport elderly, and bring meals to shut-ins. For the most part, they receive little of no compensation, and as gasoline prices break the $3 mark, one wonders what the cost will be to organizations such as FISH, Meals On Wheels, and other volunteer-dependent organizations. Will there come a point when the cost of volunteering exceeds a person’s ability to give?

“Most people are so dedicated in this town, they would go.” That is Nick Paproski’s take on the cost of being a volunteer in Newtown. Nick, 18, is a member of the Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps and a firefighter with Dodgingtown Fire Company. He is well aware of the impact high fuel costs could have on those who volunteer, especially young people. Last month he used his 1993 Chevrolet pickup, which gets only 15 miles per gallon, to answer 35 calls for the ambulance alone.

Senior members of the corps do receive credit for one gallon of gasoline per call, an amount that Nick estimates almost covers his cost of traveling to the ambulance garage or directly responding to emergencies. Fire companies do not compensate the volunteers, though, and the 10–15 calls he responds to for Dodgingtown each month can quickly add up fuelwise.

Newtown Ambulance Corps Chief Liz Caine and Deb Aubin, chairperson of the community training committee, do not expect the cost of gasoline to affect the number of people who volunteer there. If volunteers were concerned about what it costs them to respond, says Chief Caine, “they could staff from the garage, and make one trip instead of three, instead of directly responding [to emergencies].”

What people need to realize, though, says Ms Aubin, is that the token “thank you” offered the volunteers in the gas credit, is costly to the corps. The Ambulance Corps answers between 125 and 150 calls each month. If three people respond to each call, that means that 450 gallons of gas is credited each month.

“It comes out of the donations to the corps,” Ms Aubin says. So the more gas costs, the more comes out of funds available to the Ambulance Corps.

Joan Tynan drives nearly 40 miles once a month for Meals On Wheels. Her Honda Accord has pretty good mileage, so while she is aware that it is costing her somewhat more this month than last to deliver meals, she does not think about it much. “It doesn’t bother me at all,” she says. “It’s an important thing to do. If you worry about gas, you can cut down somewhere else. Where would we be if we weren’t a volunteer town?”

Meals On Wheels drivers Lynn Buttner and Peg Forbell agree with Ms Tynan that higher fuel costs will not stop those committed to volunteering.

“Being that we [Meals On Wheels] can say we want volunteers only one day a month, it’s not asking too much,” Ms Forbell said. “I’ve been doing it for 30 years come May, and I’ve been with the organization so long, I would keep doing it.”

She gets good mileage from her Chevrolet Lumina, a plus for her Meals On Wheels route that goes from Toddy Hill to Jeremiah Road, on to Great Quarter Road, Bradley Lane and Indian Hill, then back to Ashlar. “If it [fuel costs] got astronomical, there might be someone who couldn’t volunteer,” Ms Forbell supposes.

It is the newer volunteers that Ms Buttner guesses might be impacted by high fuel costs.

“I could see it impacting young mothers with young children,” she said. “Since they’re also driving children to soccer and practices, I can see if you have to make a choice about volunteering. Gas going up is really going to make people have to pick and choose.”

Even though Ms Buttner’s Toyota Sienna gets only 17 miles per gallon, the fuel increase will not stop her from volunteering. “I’m at a point in my life,” she says, “where instead of working I do a lot of volunteer. I feel sorry for the younger people.”

FISH (Friends In Service Here) provides free medical transportation for those in need.

“We have 17 drivers that have committed to drive two times each month, plus 17 substitute drivers,” states Pat Parrott, president of the organization. The average trip for drivers is about 25 miles, she figures, and drivers use their own vehicles. FISH transports one to eight patients a day, with drivers sometimes needed to make multiple trips.

“Luckily,” she goes on to say, “I haven’t heard anything about the cost of gas. I hope it won’t affect the volunteers. We always need more drivers.” Like other volunteers, Ms Parrott believes that volunteers get as much as they give. She does not think that paying for gas will prevent anyone from driving for FISH.

“It’s making yourself useful,” she says. “It’s putting purpose in your life.”

The driver coordinator for Meals On Wheels, Colleen Honan, a driver herself for that group and for FISH, says that Meals On Wheels has not lost any drivers to the higher cost of fuel, nor does she believe either organization will. Her Meals On Wheels route uses at least a gallon of gas each time, and her 1991 Chrysler Town and Country probably goes through more than that for each FISH transport she does.

Even so, she says, “Most of the drivers have been longtime drivers. I don’t think they’re going to stop because of gas.” Fueled by dedication and commitment, it appears that Newtown residents can continue to count on the hundreds who volunteer in our community.

As Ms Honan says, “They’re doing it because they enjoy it.”