ST. LOUIS — A nonprofit is in need of volunteers who can drive disabled veterans to medical appointments across the St. Louis area.
The DAV Transportation Network is a collaborative program organized through Disabled American Veterans (DAV), a nationally recognized veteran service organization. It gives free rides to veterans who receive care at Veterans Affairs (VA) medical facilities, including outlying VA clinics and Community Based Outpatient Clinics (CBOC). DAV stepped in to create the nationwide network after the U.S. government terminated a similar service, according to its website.
But finding volunteers in the St. Louis area has been more difficult than usual due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“Now more than ever, disabled veterans in the St. Louis Metro East area need help getting to their medical appointments,” DAV told 5 On Your Side in a statement. “For years, this help has been given by middle aged and older volunteers -- but with many of them working longer, or are reluctant to leave home during the pandemic, it's hard to find drivers. As a result, veterans are missing their life-saving appointments.”
Drivers are needed for 11 routes across the St. Louis metro area, including St. Louis, St. Louis County, St. Charles County, Lincoln County and various towns and cities in the Metro East. Younger drivers are especially encouraged to volunteer.
Joseph Braun is the DAV Hospital Service Coordinator with the VA St. Louis Health Care System-John Cochran Division and employed by the DAV Department of Missouri, working directly with VA St. Louis. He said some routes have only one driver who might only be able to drive once a week.
"In the meantime, that takes away from veterans getting to their appointments through DAV transportation," Braun said. That means some veterans may need to use public transportation or private companies like Uber, Lyft or taxis, which can be difficult as some of them are on limited income.
Currently, there are 63 drivers across the metro area. Only 32 of them are actively driving due to personal health risks caused by the pandemic, and some of those drivers are route coordinators who also drive due to the shortage of volunteer drivers.
The goal is to increase the number of volunteers to 100.
"We're trying to increase the number of drivers so we can accommodate more Veteran transportation requests with the appointments that are being scheduled," Braun said.
Drivers are needed for the following DAV Transportation Network coordinating areas:
- St. Louis County VA Clinic on 6854 Parker Rd.
- Edwardsville, Illinois
- Hillsborough, Illinois
- Jerseyville, Illinois
- North St. Louis County (residences north of Interstate 64 aside from the St. Louis County VA Clinic)
- St. Clair County VA Clinic in Shiloh, Illinois
- St. Louis County (residences south of I-64 up to the Jefferson County line)
- Springfield, Illinois
- St. Charles, Missouri
- Staunton, Illinois
- Washington, Missouri
DAV has implemented several COVID-19 safety measures such as personal protective equipment, plastic shield barriers, limiting the number of passengers to one per route each day and disinfecting vans after each trip.
To volunteer or for more information, call DAV at 314-289-6443, option 2.
