Volunteer Drivers Enable Angelina to Continue Community Work in Yonkers
Without FSW’s RideConnect transportation for seniors, Angelina would be paying hundreds of dollars for her weekly bus trips, or worse, $1,500 a year in taxi fees for her weekly church mission trips. With those savings, she now chooses to help others through her church.
As she stood at the bus stop one sunny May Sunday morning two years ago, a grey-haired stranger approached her. Laden with grocery bags full of supplies, books, and food, Angelina thought perhaps she wanted to help carry them.
Instead, the stranger, named Dorothy offered her something else: advice and a phone number.
Not two months prior, Angelina Mitchell’s rusty old Buick finally took its last trip. Facing a $4,000 bill to fix its broken axles, Angelina instead turned to Yonkers’s bus system. A faithful church-goer, every Sunday morning she would now lug armloads and bags of food to the bus stop to help fuel her church’s hospitality and missions programs.
The number the kind stranger handed her was to RideConnect and it would change Angelina’s life.
Today, instead of standing at the bus stop, bent from the weight of the bags and their contents, the 73-year old heart attack and stroke survivor greets a smiling driver out front of her home around 10:15AM each Sunday to head to church for a full day of doing the community work.
RideConnect Volunteers George Hauss, Ed Nash, and George Dieter are the smiling drivers who enable Angelina to get to church each week to work with the parish’s children and help feed parishioners and those in need.
“I think I speak for all of us when I say that driving Angelina each Sunday is a blessing,” says George H. “She’s a ray of sunshine and a Godsend to those in need and we’re all glad to do our part to help her continue her ministry.”
Angelina’s passionate about also involving the parish’s children in her mission work. She adores them, and coordinates them in setting up the tables, serving people, and teaching them about showing respect to fellow parishioners and doing for others. “In whatever you do,” she tells them each week, “be sure to do a good job and you will be rewarded in life”.
“RideConnect is wonderful,” she says. “By lifting the financial burden to get to church, I can answer the calling to help where I am needed. I thank God for RideConnect for their wonderful volunteer service!”
On her fixed income, if she didn’t have George H., Ed, or George D. providing RideConnect rides, Angelina would be paying hundreds of dollars for her weekly bus trips, or worse, $1,500 a year in taxi fees for her weekly church mission trips. With those savings, she now chooses to help others through her church ministry.
To celebrate RideConnect’s 10th Anniversary, they will host a Table Quiz Night on June 10, 2020. For tickets and information, click here.
To learn more about volunteering as a driver for RideConnect, click here.
To learn more about our accessible and responsive transportation options for those in need, click here.