DENNIS — On a nippy Tuesday afternoon, Marianne Thomas, who lives in Wellfleet, picks up Nancy Yeaw of Provincetown from her dentist appointment in South Dennis.
“They didn’t take the tooth,” says Yeaw, settling into the passenger seat of Thomas’s burgundy Toyota Prius. “So, I’ll have to go back.”
At 86, Yeaw says Thomas’s rides offer her both company and peace of mind. “I have a car,” she says. “But I can’t see very well. This is safer for everyone on the road.”
Getting to a dentist in Dennis with public transportation isn’t realistic for someone like Yeaw. A bus trip from Provincetown to South Dennis on the Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority’s Flex and H20 service would take more than two hours, with a transfer in Harwich Port, and include walking time from the bus stop to the dentist’s office. While the Flex bus can deviate from its route by up to three-quarters of a mile, that service has to be scheduled, and CCRTA limits these special pickups to just two stops per trip. In addition, most CCRTA bus stops on the Outer Cape do not shelter riders from wind and cold.
MassHealth provides a prepaid ride service called PT-1 for medical appointments. But the service, run by private transportation companies, is available only to qualifying MassHealth patients.
For those needing help with transportation — not just for medical appointments but for trips to the grocery store and even outings to the movies — getting there, out here, mostly happens thanks to volunteers.
Yeaw, who helped Outer Cape music lovers build their collections of records and CDs from her Provincetown shop, Muir Music, for 25 years, is now a DJ at WOMR. On the ride home, she and Thomas brainstorm playlists for Yeaw’s weekly radio show. When Billie Holiday’s rendition of “On the Sunny Side of the Street” begins to play on the car speakers, they sing along together. “It’s always a fun ride with Nancy,” says Thomas.
The two were connected through Helping Our Women (HOW), the Provincetown-based nonprofit where, in the five years since her retirement as an executive search consultant, Thomas’s volunteer duties have included running errands, delivering food, and driving HOW clients to medical appointments, some of them as far away as Boston.
Thomas estimates she’s provided well over 100 rides to women across the Outer Cape. “I like getting to know what people’s needs are in the community and how they can best be served,” she says.
Mary Berry, the office manager at HOW, says that demand for rides rises in the off-season because many clients are busy managing demanding work schedules in the summer months. Now is when people here have time to get health care. Each year, the organization facilitates more than 500 free rides for its clients, according to Berry.
HOW is not the only organization filling the gap.
“We provided over 1,400 rides last year to residents over 60,” says Chris Hottle, director of the Provincetown Council on Aging (COA). The councils in Provincetown, Truro, and Wellfleet all offer door-to-door rides to medical appointments for residents in that age group. The rides are free; donations are suggested. In Eastham, the COA provides rides for a fee.
The senior centers also organize more leisurely trips to museums and movie theaters. But rides to medical appointments remain the most in-demand service, and the towns prioritize that need.
“Transportation is a social determinant of health, plain and simple,” says Jill Brookshire, director of Medical Case Management Services at the AIDS Support Group of Cape Cod.
Brookshire points out that the absence of certain essential medical services on the Outer Cape means many need to travel to Hyannis or beyond to receive care. “We live at the end of the world, or so it feels, especially when you do not drive or have access to a vehicle,” she says. “Without adequate and accessible transportation, one cannot stay fully engaged in medical care.”
For clients who do not qualify for PT-1 rides, ASGCC relies on its volunteers to provide transportation to medical appointments. The organization’s volunteers also deliver meals to more than 40 residents in Provincetown and Truro and sometimes provide nonmedical transportation services.
Barbara Stricsek, president of Nauset Neighbors, an Orleans-based volunteer-run nonprofit serving 300 members from Harwich to Wellfleet, says she sees a growing need for transportation services in the area due to the Outer Cape’s increasingly elderly population.
Already, Stricsek says, “Meeting everyone’s needs can be quite challenging.” While rides to medical appointments are the most frequently requested service, social visits are also in high demand among Nauset Neighbors’ clients.
“We have members who lack nearby friends or family and really benefit from one-on-one time,” says Stricsek. Social visits do more than just enhance someone’s quality of life, she says. They also can help people who might otherwise need to move into care facilities stay in their own homes.
Matt Kaminsky, a Nauset Neighbors volunteer in Orleans, understands that people isolated at home need connections. “Some people just want to go to the beach and hang out,” he says. Kaminsky finds these connections rewarding for him, too.
One of the people he visits is a World War II veteran. “He signed up for the Marine Corps when he was 17 years old,” says Kaminsky. “When I was 17, I wasn’t thinking about that. It’s just a completely different generation.” Kaminsky says he appreciates what his World War II veteran friend went through.
Apart from driving for Meals on Wheels every Wednesday, Kaminsky spends time each week with three clients, taking them for rides. “I’ve met so many wonderful people,” he says.
During drives, Kaminsky makes a point to turn off the radio and talk to the people he spends time with. One topic that always comes up, he says, is the change in exit numbers on Route 6: “Nobody likes it.”
