Everyday Heroes
by Arlene Jensen
Rubenia Booth
Modern medicine has given cancer patients hope that didn’t exist a few years ago. Yet the challenge facing many patients is simply a lack of transportation to treatment centers.
A new partnership between the American Cancer Society, Kenosha Area Family and Aging Services, Inc. (KAFASI) and the Kenosha County Division of Aging Services will help get cancer patients to doctor offices and hospitals for treatment. The American Cancer Society underwrites the trips at no cost to the cancer patient.
The system relies on willing drivers like Rubenia Booth to fill out the ranks of KAFASI’s Volunteer Escort Program. Booth, known to friends as “Ruby,” spends two days a week driving people to medical and other necessary appointments.
Currently, 25 cancer patients use this KAFASI service, Booth and her fellow drivers enable Kenosha County seniors and disabled persons to keep medical appointments locally, in Milwaukee and even farther away.
Volunteers also take seniors shopping for groceries and prescriptions, for hair appointments and other necessary trips.
The 72-year-old Booth retired in 1982 after working 30 years at American Motors. She has a no-nonsense, practical view of how to make use of her retirement years.
“I like knowing that I’m helping somebody, and I hate wasting time.”
A KAFASI volunteer since 2001, Booth has logged some 240 trips, a total of 2,000 miles and 355 hours of volunteer time.
Born in Foley, Alabama, Booth came to Kenosha in 1947. Widowed since 1982, she is the mother of seven, including Kenosha County Board Supervisor Ruth DeLace Booth.
She has 17 grandchildren and, as she puts it, “no end to the number of great grandchildren.”
After retiring from AMC, she worked for a time at Snap-on Tools, then spent 12 years as a housekeeper in Illinois. She also was a volunteer helper in the Roosevelt School lunch program for four years.
Ready to launch a new career, she took manicure and pedicure training and worked for a time at a local barber shop, until she found that the work was too hard on her back.
Again, feeling she was wasting time “just sitting at home,” she read in the newspaper that KAFASI was looking for volunteers.
“So I went down and told them I would help!”
After sampling various volunteer jobs within the agency, Booth settled on the Volunteer Escort Program.
“Somehow, I saw driving as a way I could help. I didn’t know if it would be interesting at first, but you meet a lot of nice people and now when they call in, they ask to have me drive them” she said.
Booth can be counted on to help out with other KAFASI and Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) needs, such as mass mailings and the annual coat giveaway to needy children. She is head of the women’s committee at her church, the Praise and Worship Deliverance Ministry, and is also a poll worker for local elections.
She belongs to Lincoln Neighborhood Alliance, a group that does everything from pull weeds in gardens to hosting Easter egg hunts.
When she isn’t volunteering, what does Ruby do for fun?
“Most of my children live in other states,” she says, “so I am constantly flying off to visit somebody. I like to go on cruises too. And I like to relax and go out with friends.”
She is a member of Ethnic Elders, an organization of about 30 black seniors who get together once a month to socialize.
Booth is one of about 65 drivers who help out when needed by KAFASI, but Barb Rankin, Volunteer Escort Coordinator, said the program still has a real need for another 10 drivers.
To be a driver, a volunteer must have a car, safe driving skills and one free morning or afternoon a month. Volunteers receive training before they go on the road and can work as much or as little as they want.
Drivers are required to have personal auto insurance and additionally are covered by KAFASI and the Volunteer Protection Act.
Volunteer drivers are paid 32 cents per mile for every mile they drive, from their home, the distance of the scheduled trip and back home again.
The program is designed to serve seniors over 65 and disabled persons. Riders must be ambulatory but have difficulty using commercial transportation due to age or impairment. Persons with canes, crutches and walkers are accepted, but those with folding wheelchairs must have an attendant for the transfer of the rider and the chair. The attendant is not charged a fare.
Transportation for cancer patients is paid by the American Cancer Society grant, but set rates apply for other riders, ranging from $6 to $18 in Kenosha County. Milwaukee trips are charged at a $35 roundtrip fee. If the rider does not receive Medical Assistance, fare payments are due at the time of service.
To get involved or to get more information, please call Dana Tehako-Esser, Volunteer Services Coordinator, at 262-658-3508 ext. 120.
