Longtime volunteer and Walker Lake resident Charlie Morris is stepping down from taking seniors to their doctor’s appointments through the Retired Seniors Volunteer Program and the Disabled American Veterans program and would like to see a few people come in to take his place and carry the torch to help continue to meet the needs of the community.
“For the past eleven years I have had the honor of serving some of the most vulnerable in Mineral County. During the first 15 months of COVID restrictions I drove Mineral County residents to medical appointments 150 times,” Morris wrote in a Letter to the Editor.
Morris cannot drive seniors and veterans around anymore due to a medical issue, and there are only a couple of other drivers who volunteer for the DAV and RSVP programs. Morris says that the volunteers often drive out of town and on long trips, and one of the volunteers cannot drive the wheelchair-accessible van due to back problems.
“Some drivers feel comfortable going to Fallon and Yerington but not Reno or Carson, so we’re kind of stuck,” Morris says. Morris has shuttled seniors and veterans to their medical appointments, doing 3-5 trips a week during the pandemic, spending upwards of 1,080 hours in his volunteering.
And while he says that some of those trips are complicated- sometimes he would drive 15-hour days, 700 miles each way (like taking one lady from Gabbs to Fallon and back, or another gentleman who he picked up from his home east of Austin and took him to Reno), he will miss the people he’s driven around.
“My parents did a lot of volunteer work; they were always around to help out, to deliver food or be there when someone needed something. I look at [driving for the DAV program] as paying it forward; maybe one day I’ll be the passenger,” Morris says. “The people I meet, the ones I’ve gotten to know, they’re different from my neighbors. They’re like family now.”
However, he says he will stay busy with his “10,001 honey-do’s” that he has at home and will be hitting the road in August in his new motorhome to visit family in the Midwest.
“After a brief respite, I will be looking at other ways to serve. Meanwhile, drivers are needed. We have a small group of dedicated people. Far too small. Employed people may have to take time from work to drive their relatives to doctors,” Morris sent to the Independent-News.
Morris encourages anyone in Mineral County who can to call MJ’s Depot at 775-945-9001 to become a volunteer driver for the area’s senior citizens.
“Thank you, MJ, coordinator of both programs, for putting up with me for so long. God Bless America,” Morris concludes.
