People in Motion nearing fundraising goal

Jan 24, 2018 | 11:14 AM

KAMLOOPS — The response to People in Motion’s fundraising drive for a new para-transit bus has been “phenomenal.”

The drive, which started just two weeks ago, has almost reached its $120,000 goal — months ahead of the target date.

“The community support for our fundraiser has been phenomenal,” says Director of Education and Programs Kari Rubel. “The first week we had almost $80,000 donated that single day. Now we’re at $106,000 so $14,000 left to go and we can get our new para-transit bus.”

Rubel says their current bus has become unreliable and has even broken down a couple of times. They’d like to replace it with a new 18 to 20 passenger model.

She attributes the success of the fundraising drive to public education.

“These last few months we’ve really been educating our community on what People in Motion does for a surrounding areas and for our folks with diverse abilities. We provide educational and recreational programs for people with disabilities and transportation is one of the barriers in their quality of life so if we can provide that for them it makes it safer for them and it gets them involved in our community.”

Rubel says they have over 475 members and of those, about 160 attend programs on a regular basis.

If you’d like to donate you can do so online here or call (250) 376-7878.

“Every little bit helps and we appreciate each and every one of those donations coming through,” said Rubel.