Sorry to Elizabeth and Mark for the delay in sticking this up, which was sent to me last week. It’s been a busy week, but better late than never, eh!
You might’ve previously noticed details in the Chronicle of the RSVP Community bus. It’s a great facility which has been so successful that they’ve been able to buy another bus. The second one stays in Shanklin and is used for care home outings around the island (that’s outings for people in care homes, not outings to care homes).
With that bus taken care of, the Ventnor one remains available to the more local community. RSVP have a new programme for Ventnor starting very soon, but are looking for further suggestions.
Some of the ideas floating around at the moment include a variety of outings, including shopping trips to Newport or Ryde each week. Other ideas could be a Mystery Tour after Sunday lunch, helping parishioners get to a Church Service, lunch at a Pub (obviously with a dedicated driver), or visit an Island event.
It’s a ten-seater bus with a hoist and dedicated wheelchair space – enabling those who are housebound to get to shops or events that might not have previously been able to.
If you would be interested in hearing more, please contact Mark (857756) or Elizabeth (857170) between the hours of 9 am and 2 pm or email them at:
mark_compton_hall @ btinternet.com or esummers 99 @ bigfoot.com (remove the spaces – they’re in there to stop being picked up for spam)
They are also looking for volunteer drivers to help support the venture. Running costs are currently funded by donations – if you want to support but can’t financially, perhaps you could offer a couple of hours as a driver.
Other community groups are more than welcome to use the bus, if a group of you want to use it to head up to a gig in Ryde, so long as you have a responsible driver, I’m sure that would work.
