Last year, we ended our Year in Review with the words, “Humanity, compassion, connection, and preservation of dignity is what we do, and we can’t wait to see what we can do together in 2024.” Well, in 2024, we began to see some real growth in our team that we haven’t seen since 2019. Our number of paid and volunteer drivers grew, along with our Board of Directors, and vehicle count. And our whole (growing) team went the extra mile to make sure our clients were cared for.
Five of our drivers showed up hours early in the ice storm last January to clear vehicles and paths to ensure their regular clients made it to their critical dialysis appointments.
We provided transportation for a woman in need all the way in Otter Rock, which you can read more about on our Facebook.
Began providing transportation for critical medical treatments at a hospital outside our normal service area.
Located and delivered a wheelchair to a client in need.
Showed our support for 4H and the children involved.
Thanksgiving and Christmas meals were delivered to clients once again by members of our team who decide to volunteer their time each year.
Drivers, Tim and Jason, took a long-time client to her first ever football game on their day off after learning she had never gone, but always wanted to.
Received a Certificate of Appreciation from the Linn Benton Chapter of National Federation of the Blind.
Provided children with books, fidgets, toys, etc. for their (occasionally very long) rides to and from school.
Our donors were more important to our services this year than ever before and they have allowed us to continue growing in the way we want. We wanted to feature a few of our biggest donors of 2024 and thank them for their support.
Pete and Sara Blanchfield’s donation made it possible for us to begin providing transportation to a hospital outside of our normal service area for local clients who needed the treatment they offered.
Lee Schroeder and Lynda Wolfenbarger together donated 5k.
Nancy Muir, who has also driven with us in the past, donated almost $6k.
And a special thank you to our sponsors: John Gardner, Evergreen Dental, Healing Motion Physical Therapy, OnPoint Community Credit Union, and more!
In 2024, donor money was used to purchase vehicles, expand hours for our clients, and provide a few extra services that would not have been fully funded by other means. Going in to 2025 we are still working on upgrading our storage for all of our necessary safety equipment.
Along with finding new ways to benefit the community, we also found new employees, volunteers, board members, and vehicles.
We were able to purchase six vehicles this year, a few of which were replacing our oldest, most used vehicles.
Drivers John Bradshaw, Kandia Sweet, and Susan Smith joined our team.
On the topic of new drivers, David Holden, who was hired at the end of 2023 became our 2024 Employee of the Year!
Tom Hendrix retired as an employee after 12 years, but he joined our Board of Directors as a volunteer!
Harlan Akers, a volunteer driver, and Mary Powelson, a long-time client, also joined our Board of Directors.
We were extremely happy to have three new volunteer drivers sign up! One of our long-time volunteers did retire this year though, leaving us with 11 volunteers going into 2025. If you'd like to sign up to volunteer, you can do so on our website!
2025 marks 50 years since a group of friends got together and decided to volunteer to drive people out to the Senior Center who needed a little extra help. In 2024, our volunteers drove more than 32,000 miles over 2,200 hours. That could take you everywhere in Benton County over 47 times! Just imagine the impact on people in need if all of those rides weren't available to them.
The ways you can give to Dial-A-Bus didn’t change too much in 2024, but we do have some exciting news for 2025!
We have been selected as a Featured Nonprofit with Target Circle! This means that from January 1st through March 31st, when you shop at Target you can cast a vote for Dial-A-Bus that will earn us a share of Target’s Community Giving Program Funds. After shopping at Target online or in-store (and scanning your receipt in the Target app) you can visit target.com/circle/community-voting to cast your vote for Dial-A-Bus!
We started raising funds through ShopRaise in April of 2024 to replace AmazonSmile. With ShopRaise you can shop online at almost 1,000 different retailers and earn funds for Dial-A-Bus at no extra cost to you. You can sign up here and be sure to add the extension to your browser so that each time you visit an eligible retailer, you'll be able to activate ShopRaise and make your purchase count!
We want to give a little shout out to one supporter in particular who regularly purchases Amazon gift cards through ShopRaise, which earns us funds, and then she uses those gift cards to make her normal Amazon purchases. Thank you Ruth Moore for getting every cent you can on ShopRaise for Dial-A-Bus!
We’ve had a few sponsors here and there in the past, but in 2024 they became a larger focus. If you own a business and would like to receive all the perks our sponsors get, you can email us at development@dialabus.org
Another way to give to Dial-A-Bus, if you want to switch things up, is to offer a matched gift that you’ll only donate once other donors have matched that amount during a fundraising event. If you’d like more information about this, you can email development@dialabus.org
Last, but not least, we updated our PayPal in 2024. If you had a monthly donation set up through PayPal prior to 2024, it was cancelled when we created our new account. Our new PayPal is connected to our website’s donation form!
Thank you for supporting our mission and keeping our wheels turning in 2024. As one of our clients said recently, “Accessibility is freedom.” We’re dedicated to continuing to provide that freedom to our neighbors and clients in 2025!
コメント