Rick Young has enjoyed every one of the 52,000 kilometers he has put on the Jeep Cherokee he bought just over a year ago.
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“I love to drive and help people out,” Young said. “All that driving gives me a reason to get up in the morning.
“I gotta live up to my last name you know.”
A 74-year-old resident of Vittoria, Young has a busy schedule that keeps him on the road most days a week. He’s a volunteer driver for Seniors’ Support Services, St. Vincent de Paul Society in Simcoe and Wheels of Hope, the Canadian Cancer Society’s volunteer transportation program.
“They’re all important to our community and I’m a cancer survivor myself and that’s one of the reasons why I drive for Wheels of Hope,” Young said. “They make sure cancer patients get to their appointments.
“I know how terrifying it is to get a cancer diagnosis and I want to help patients any way I can.”
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Most of the time the drives to and from cancer appointments are quiet, Young said.
“I’ll try to strike up a conversation, but I can usually tell when someone doesn’t really want to talk and I understand what they’re feeling,” Young said. “It’s just important to be there for them and get them to their appointments.”
Young delivers emergency meals for St. Vincent de Paul and he recently landed a new volunteer driver gig helping out the Ontario Turtle Conservation Center in Peterborough.
“They have a turtle hospital there and I help get injured turtles to the hospital,” Young said. “I can also transport eggs.
“It’s done through a relay system.”
The last time he transported a turtle he took it to Guelph where it was assessed before being sent to the turtle hospital.
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Young said the turtle conservation center is looking after 1,500 turtles that will eventually be rehabilitated back to their natural area.
Young figures he makes seven to eight trips a week as a driver. While most of his volunteer time is spent driving people, he finds other ways to contribute to the community.
He helped out at the Terry Fox Run, and on the weekend he gave his time to the Norfolk County Fair and Horse Show.
“The fair is a big event and they can always use more volunteers,” Young, who has been a volunteer driver since about 2019, said. “But for me, the big thing is being a volunteer driver.
“I remember when I signed up for the seniors, there was a real shortage of drivers.”
Young said volunteer drivers are especially important in rural areas like Norfolk because communities are so spread out and there is a lack of public transit.
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