By Elizabeth Cloutman
 Photo by Monique Schoenfeld, Town Crier |
Transportation service at El Camino Hospital expands to include personal errands
Through the citizens band radio’s static, a voice breaks through, “Runner Dini to Runner Ben.” Ben Dooley, a volunteer driver for El Camino Hospital’s Roadrunners transportation service, radios back, “This is runner Ben,” to assistant manager Dini Stephens, while he waits in his parked white Dodge van for passenger Elsie Bell to emerge from her Mountain View beauty salon.
Just a month ago, Roadrunners expanded its service so passengers who, like Bell, live within a 10-mile radius of the hospital, can be driven to supermarkets, shopping centers, banks and personal appointments. Previously the service had provided transportation only for medically-related appointments.
Bonnie Adamson, Roadrunners’ transportation manager, said the late Los Altan Greg Tuban and his wife Faith began the service in 1976, coordinating it out of their kitchen.
The Tubans, along with two other volunteers, used their own cars to take patients to medical treatment.
In 1985 Roadrunners became a part of the hospital’s volunteer auxiliary, and now it has a fleet of five station wagons and a Dodge van, purchased with funds from the auxiliary and the El Camino Hospital Foundation.
Last year, 32 Roadrunner volunteer men and women spent a total of 9,410 hours transporting 12,506 clients over 106,655 miles, Adamson said. The service would like to have more volunteers, she added.
The only other such transportation service available in the area is Outreach, funded by Santa Clara County. Outreach requires that clients be unable to drive or unable to board a bus. Roadrunners’ only requirement is that a person be ambulatory.
There is a charge for using the Roadrunner service. One-way costs range from $3 for destinations a mile or less away from a client’s home, to $14 for those eight to 10 miles away. Clients are billed monthly.
Dooley, initially recruited by a friend who was a Roadrunner volunteer, has driven 100-125 miles a day, two days a week, for the past 12 years. He thoroughly enjoys talking with and assisting his passengers. “You meet people from all walks of life,” he said. “Most of our clients are really appreciative.”
Bell is one of those clients. “They’re very nice to pick us up and they’re very helpful,” she said.
Los Altos resident Renee Landy, 89, concurs.
“They’re absolutely wonderful and they’re all volunteers,” she said. “It’s like having a member of the family.”
She said the Roadrunners are always on time to pick her up for medical appointments or even getting her hair done. “Anything at all for a person who doesn’t have a car, they’ll do,” she said. “Such caring people. When they take me home, they make sure I get into the house.”
To volunteer or to schedule a pick-up (at least 24 hours in advance), call 940-7016.
