Community Area Busing

Choose WeCAB for your End of Year Gift. 

We have 2 goals: 46 donors to match our 46 volunteers & raise enough to provide 121 rides for our neighbors. 

By providing a gift, you are supporting WeCAB's mission to provide safe, affordable, and flexible supplemental transportation through a network of volunteers. Lets meet one of those volunteers!

Robin from Mound, MN has been a volunteer driver for WeCAB for 18 months now but has known about WeCAB for much longer than that. Robin worked for a school where they had social workers who had the knowledge of a plethora of community resources and WeCAB was one of them. When Robin first retired, she wanted to volunteer but she leads a busy life and loves the freedom to travel. She can’t commit to a weekly volunteer engagement, but she could commit to WeCAB. Volunteering with WeCAB is flexible and can be on whatever schedule you prefer.

Robin loves volunteering with WeCAB because “I feel like a hero and all I did was drive them to the post office”. When you pick up a rider, often times you can tell that they haven’t talked to someone in a few days, and she loves the conversation and getting to know people on the trips. Often, when I tell other people about WeCAB they want to know how to sign up but end of being outside of the service area. It shows the overwhelming need for these services in the current service areas and beyond.

 A couple months into driving, Robin picked someone up and it was his first ride. Shortly after, she saw his name come up for a ride to see a show at the Chaska Community Center. Robin thought the chances of him finding a ride for his date night were slim, especially because the return trip would be at 9:30pm and most WeCAB drivers are asleep by then! Robin took action and accepted the ride and made some plans of her own for her and her husband to also attend the show. She shared that it was a musical and was very well done, they had a great time and then did the return trip afterwards for the rider and it ended up being a very easy night.

 It takes so little effort on the part of the driver. “I really feel like I’m doing something important.” Robin also shared that “it’s so easy and flexible that there’s no reason not to do it.” I am delighted with the technology. Everything is very simple and well done, its very intuitive and not complicated to use. Something interesting is that Robin realized is that “now I know a lot of riders but not a lot of other drivers.” She plans to attend more events in the future to meet more volunteers. She has recruited her husband and a friend or two of hers to be drivers as well. “It’s easy to get new riders but not new drivers.” Whenever Robin visits places in the community she thinks about how WeCAB could get the word out there as well to connect with other sources and people to drive.

 Whenever possible, Robin looks at the list for the more challenging rides to try to meet as many of the ones she thinks others might struggle to accept as possible. That’s not the only challenge Robin takes on though. She shared that “a lot of people are amazed when I tell them I do ice baths with a little group of friends on Sundays on Lake Minnetonka.” This is her second winter chopping holes in the ice and jumping in. She shared that after the initial shock of the chill has worn off, it’s good for your body and mental health (fight or flight response) to know you’re safe even though it might be initially uncomfortable. I’m sure that’s how it feels when riders take their first ride with WeCAB. They’re nervous at first, but after the initial feelings wear off, you know this is a great service and will help you a lot.

In 2023, WeCAB had 46 volunteer drivers, 801 registered riders, and drove 28,813 miles. WeCAB has a small staff and is extremely dependent on volunteers and donors to provide this transportation service. 

Since its inception, WeCAB has realized that we do so much more than what we can show you statistically. WeCAB provides reliability, helps families navigate the time in their life when it’s no longer safe to drive their own car, we provide a friend to chat with, and so many other things that are important to being a thriving member of a community.