A group of truck and off-road vehicle owners on Vancouver Island is volunteering to drive health-care staff to work on time, as a winter storm continues to make road conditions hazardous.
The private Facebook group of more than 4,600 members was created in January 2020, but its drivers have been particularly busy this holiday season amid heavy snowfall and bitterly cold temperatures.
“I really, really, really don’t feel like I’m doing anything,” said Nanaimo resident Mark Don, who has offered free lifts to dozens of health-care workers since Christmas.
“It’s literally the joy of my life. They’re amazing people … and we all have the same goal of helping people, so why not help them to … help others?”
Members of the group, called ‘VI Toyota 4×4 & VIHA Staff Transportation,’ post their location and availability on the Facebook page to be connected with a health-care worker in need of their services.
Don said he was first alerted to the need for rides by his fiancée, sister and mother, all of whom work in the health-care system. He joined the Facebook group in December and said the response from his “angel” passengers has been “amazing.”
“As much as I’m doing for them, they’re doing for us as well — for our mental health, for keeping us upbeat,” he said.
“They’re very thankful and they make us feel like we are doing way more than we think we’re doing.”
Daniel Spence, who also lives in Nanaimo, has been driving health-care workers around this winter. He estimates he’s transported more than 130 in five days of volunteering from 3 a.m. to lunchtime.
It’s a way to give back to the people who saved his life, he told Global News.
“I’ve had 37 broken bones and recently my second broken neck. I’m still around and moving just because of Nanaimo Regional General Hospital, so if I can give them a safe ride to work to help them, by all means.”
Members of the Facebook group maintain their vehicles to withstand winter conditions, Spence added, so it’s nice to “put the fuel to something useful, accomplishing something and helping people.”
The break for health-care workers is “most deserved,” he said, during a pandemic that has tried and tested them in unimaginable ways.
“I don’t think they realize how much we appreciate them,” he said. “They don’t realize how hard it is to do their job.”
Both Spence and Don said they’ll continue to offer rides in their vehicles as long as the winter driving conditions and the need persists.
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