‘Freedom Express’ helps Mount Hope residents explore London

The nearly 400 residents at Mount Hope Centre for Long-Term Care have a new way to explore the city.

Thanks to some generous private donors, residents can use the newly purchased bus for day trips with their family and other residents. They used to have to share a bus with Parkwood Hospital, meaning their adventures were fewer and farther between.

Carolyn Dowdell has been a resident at Mount Hope for 17 years and is looking forward to more opportunities to explore London.

“I just love to go around the city and see the sights, and see how much the city has been built up over the years,” said Dowdell.

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“We go out to Arva, we’ve gone to an apple orchard, there’s a lot of variety to the places we want to go and see, and hopefully we can, now that we have our own bus.”

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Officials say they have more than 25 trips planned for the next three months, including stops at the butterfly conservatory in Kitchener, train museum in St. Thomas, and the always popular day trip to Port Stanley.

President and CEO of the St. Joseph’s Health Care Foundation, Michelle Campbell, says the new bus is appropriately named the “Freedom Express.”

“An outing is a really great occasion, and the bus will create opportunities to get out in the community much more often, and much easier in small groups.”

Campbell says the custom-built bus can accommodate up to eight wheelchair passengers along with six attendants.

“That means they can get out to London Knights games, they can go shopping at the mall, they can go shopping,” said Campbell.

“It broadens their world, it makes it possible for them to get out more.”

Day trips are expected to begin as early as Friday.