For over 25 years, The Gentle Ben Care Society in Smith has been doing good work. Its agents have helped area seniors by offering housekeeping, handymen, and transportation services for a nominal fee.
“It isn’t all a freebie, but people do get help,” says society president Ed Yoder. “The government provides Gentle Ben with so much funds. The seniors top that up when they want some work done.”
This year, M.D. 124 has allotted Gentle Ben $12,000 for this year’s operations. That might sound like a lot of money to some people but the society is constantly struggling to make the money last all year.
“The meat of this program is transportation for services that are not available in Smith,” says Yoder. “Doctor appointments, dentists, and those sorts of things. “Sometimes they’ll do other things while they’re up there, but the drive is the service.”
Driving seniors to various appointments is worthwhile because some of them can no longer drive and would miss meetings. Gentle Ben usually has two drivers at its disposal with two on standby. For $30, seniors can buy round trip service to Slave Lake or Athabasca.
“It’s really important to keep this going because the seniors need this service,” Yoder says. “The biggest problem we have is that the funding we get is not really adequate to pay the drivers what we think they’re worth. Our drivers, at the present time, are underpaid.”
In fact, all Gentle Ben drivers have left the organization, and Yoder can find no fault with them. He knows drivers don’t earn much money for a run to town and back. With gas prices soaring, and insufficient funds, each trip barely pays for itself. According to Yoder, drivers would only make a few dollars per trip.
“I don’t blame them. I don’t blame anybody for not wanting to drive for what we offer,” he says. “It’s terrible to see them go, but we only have so much money.”
According to the society’s coordinator, Shannon Pearson, to pay a driver what he’s worth would destroy program feasibility.
“There is no other place in Alberta that currently offers a service of this kind,” says Pearson. “We operate with this much money and then we need more money. If we charge more for the service, some people will be unable to afford it.”
“If we up our wages to where is feasible, we’d run out of money in a hurry,” Yoder adds. “We’re just trying to ensure that the end of a year, we still have money available for the project. I said to council, ‘we can throw it wide open if you want to, but by the middle of the year, we’re out of money and have to shut her down.’
To stretch those dollars are far as they can, seniors will have to start arranging trips through Perrson after more drivers are found. In the past, the car and driver were not always used efficiently. There were cases of two vehicles, with neither one full, going to the same place around the same time.
“The old system worked, to a degree, but we saw abuses. It’s sort of a strong word, but that’s what it amounts to,” Yoder says. “Some (seniors) like to go straight to the drivers. As long as they didn’t have two trips for the month, the driver would just go.”
“That’s how we would wind up in trouble where two cars are going to the same place,” says Perrson.
Gentle Ben has some hard choices to make. Yoder and Pearson both feel very strongly that the transportation service is vital to area seniors but recognize that no program survives if expenses exceed revenue. An application has been made to Alberta Lottery’s Wild Rose Foundation who once funded Gentle Ben for $10,000. The Smith Half Century Club is doing its part by paying for a minority share of each trip and if all else fails, Perrson says they will go to Reeve for more money.
“The M.D. did come through for them last year,” says Pearson. “(We) went and pleaded (our) case to the M.D. They gave us $2,500. The M.D. knows how important this service is.”
“The will of the people involved can help keep it going,” Yoder says. “If there’s money, we’ll try and find a way to provide service. And when we run out, we’re going to go knock on Denny Garrett’s door.”
For more information or to get involved in the Gentle Ben Care Society, call Shannon at 829-3850.

Copyright © 2000 The Lakeside Leader. All Rights Reserved.
No part may be reproduced without written permission.

View our Privacy Statement.
Send website suggestions to the Webmaster