Douglas County Senior Services bus driver Darrell Shuck, left, assists rider Mildred Seiwald, Lawrence, Wednesday on a bus outside the Lawrence Senior Center, 745 Vt. A fundraising campaign for Douglas County Senior Services kicks off May 1 to help replace vans and a bus and to get them updated with a wheelchair lift. The senior center provides transportation daily for more than 200 seniors to receive medical care and go to the grocery store or to social events.

Getting around isn’t as easy as it used to be for Marian Brown, 78.

As a widow with a car out of service, a bad knee and a fixed income, she relies on friends or city services for transportation.

Brown, a retired beautician, was more than happy to pay $2 to catch a ride on a van provided by Douglas County Senior Services to her doctor’s appointment Wednesday.

“I’m finding more and more it will become a necessity,” she said. “Many seniors are in the same boat.”

John Glassman, executive director of Douglas County Senior Services, is counting on funds raised through the city to put seniors in new vans.

Age, mileage, operating expenses and damage have put the senior center’s vans out of commission, Glassman said.

Douglas County Senior Services is seeking at least $15,000 to purchase a new eight-passenger van. An insurance company is paying a large portion for another van that was damaged during an ice storm. The center also has a grant request to the Kansas Department of Transportation to pay 80 percent of the cost for a third van.

All three vans that can hold between eight and 15 passengers will need to have wheelchair lifts installed, too.

Glassman said the senior center is facing pressure not only in increased gas prices but also in a growing number of seniors needing rides. The center serves seniors in Baldwin City, Eudora and Lecompton in addition to Lawrence. He said he’s also keeping his eye on the city’s bus transportation plans.

On a tight city budget, it’s unclear whether the city’s T bus system will continue in the future or whether the program will be cut back. The city offers rides for $1 one way and $2 for the paratransit, which offers a wheelchair lift.

“I think a community like Lawrence needs to be prepared to respond,” Glassman said.

Not only is the service a necessity for some, but it’s also a means of independence.

“It affects them greatly,” said Jessie Kwatamdia, program manager for the senior center. “Having transportation prevents them from isolation. It gives them a sense of independence and relieves their family of providing rides.”

The center offers about 1,100 rides a month to between 210 and 235 people age 60 and older.

Glassman said 65 percent of the rides are to medical appointments. Rides are also provided weekly to the grocery store, beauty and barber shops, and social activities. Rides must be scheduled 24 hours in advance.

Brown said the senior services transportation is “the best deal in town.”

“It’s important for seniors to have it; we need proper, reliable transportation,” she said.

Though Douglas County Senior Services is taking donations now to raise money for the vans, an official fundraising campaign called Jazz it Up will begin April 1.