DART donates three RideShare vans to local organizations

Three area non-profit organizations received retired RideShare vans through DART’s van donation program on December 19. The recipients are Latinas/Latinos Al Éxito, Eyerly Ball Community Mental Health Services and Helping Our Veterans with Everyday Living (HOVEL). Twelve organizations applied for the vans.

The van donation program was started by the DART Board of Commissioners in 2014 to help meet transit needs of community organizations by donating RideShare vans that were being retired from DART’s fleet.

“We know there are people in central Iowa with unmet transit needs. This van donation program is a way we can use our retired vans from DART RideShare to help local organizations meet the transportation needs of the people that they serve,” explains Tom Gayman, Chair of the DART Board of Commissioners.

• Latinas/Latinos Al Éxito is an Iowa non-profit that provides programming to build the leadership potential of Latina/o youth through college preparation, career development, civic engagement, family support and celebration of culture. Al Éxito will use its van to help Des Moines area students get to programming and increase programming opportunities, including: traveling for college visits, supplemental educational events, statewide conferences and their normal weekly programing.
• Eyerly Ball Community Mental Health Services is a non-profit that helps the people they serve to maintain all aspects of their well-being so that they can lead healthy, productive lives as active community members. They plan to use their van to provide access to health and mental health services for residents of their residential care facility through community integration.
• Helping Our Veterans with Everyday Living (HOVEL) is a non-profit organization with a focus of assisting under-served veterans who lack the skills and resources to cope with everyday living. HOVEL will use their van to transport local veterans to employment, educational classes, medical appointments, other health services such as AA and NA, shopping trips and recreational activities.

The Des Moines Area Regional Transit Authority (DART) is the public transportation provider in and around Polk County. DART operates a family of transportation services that connects thousands of people every day to jobs, school, medical appointments, entertainment and more. For more information about DART services, schedules, route changes, or directions to the nearest DART stop, visit the website at ridedart.com or call 515-283-8100.

In photo, from left: Thomas Brown, HOVEL; Amanda Wanke, DART, Eric Idehen, HOVEL; Ashley Kitchen, HOVEL; Victoria Lomax, HOVEL; Tanya Kitchen, HOVEL; Carlos Celaya, Al Exito; Kellen Huseman, Eyerly Ball; Darcie Vandegrift, Al Exito; Elizabeth Presutti, DART; Scott Thomas, Eyerly Ball; Brandon Pollard, DART