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Bar Harbor Times (February 14,2008)
On this February day, let's draw back the curtain and peer into the Island Connections' office. Just how does this organization of 150 volunteers work? We invite you to take a peek.
On each of the desks in the office is a telephone, and in each office is a computer. These are the tools that keep us organized and in touch with our volunteers. Our database is a thing of beauty: It tracks the details on over 3,500 rides each year. Requests for rides come in a number of forms:
Mrs. Jones needs to get to her Dentist on Thursday.
Mr. Baker needs to get to physical therapy twice a week for the next seven weeks.
Mr. Gilmore needs a ride to the Food Pantry on the second Tuesday of each month.
Miss Patterson needs to get to (and from) Dialysis in Ellsworth three days a week.
All these requests are entered into our computer. By Thursday of each week we have a fairly good idea of what the following week's schedule will look like. We start calling our volunteers seeing what rides they'd like to do.
Throughout the week additional requests for rides come in. These are added to the schedule. Each day we spend time on the phone talking with volunteers about rides. Sometimes we fill requests in a few minutes - sometimes it can take days. In an effort to make Island Connections a reliable service we ask for 24 hour notice on rides around MDI and Ellsworth, and 48 hour notice for rides to Bangor.
We want to make sure that we have enough time to find volunteers to give rides. {After all, we don't keep the volunteers in a closet, ready to use at a moment's notice.}
Starting at about three o'clock each afternoon a volunteer calls each
neighbor with a ride scheduled for the following day, making sure they know what volunteer will be taking them.
This routine continues week after week - 52 weeks of Neighbors helping Neighbors each year.
If you'd like to know more about how Island Connections works, please call the office at 288-4457 and ask for Andrew Dewey.
Upcoming Events:
Mondays - 1:30 p.m. Bingo at Rodick-Loraine in Bar Harbor
Tuesdays -1:30 p.m. Bingo at Ridge Apartments in Southwest Harbor
Thursdays - 1:30 p.m. Matinee Movies at Reel Pizza in Bar Harbor
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