Volunteers Driven to Help Others

Phyllis Wayland engaged in a little chitchat as she cheerfully drove Jane Miller one day recently to see Miller’s orthopedic doctor.

Miller, 71, lives alone in Fullerton’s Truslow neighborhood and likes it that way. But without Wayland to drive her to the doctor, she said, she would lose her independence.

Wayland is a volunteer for FISH (Friends In Service to Humanity), a nonprofit organization which serves older people who can no longer drive.

The organization is marking its 25th anniversary this year with a call for more volunteers to handle its growing caseload.

“The need for drivers is climbing,” said Carol Smith, a FISH spokeswoman. “Transportation is seen as the most rapidly growing problem for seniors who are so desperate to remain independent.”

Miller, a longtime FISH client, agreed.

“I like living on my own,” said Miller, who has artificial knees and uses a walker. “If I didn’t have this help from FISH, it would be pretty difficult for me to get around.”

She said she could not afford to pay for a cab and finds it incredible that FISH can offer the service free.

It does so because the organization is run entirely by volunteer drivers and dispatchers, Miller said.

Edward Jahns of Fullerton, who is blind, said he uses FISH because of the friendly drivers. The 86-year-old retired engineer has found a good friend in Robin Thornton, who helped him buy groceries one day recently, drove him to the dry cleaners, ate lunch with him and enthusiastically listened to Jahns’ stories about his youth.

There are three FISH groups in Orange County and thousands more throughout the country. Miller said each needs more volunteers.

Senior citizens number 367,000 in Orange County, said Micky Scholte, chairwoman of transportation for the Senior Citizens Advisory Committee of the county’s Area Agency on Aging. She said that the number has increased by about 5% each year for the past two years, and the trend probably will continue.

“We’ve got healthy seniors who can no longer drive, and groups like FISH help them maintain their independence,” Scholte said. “That’s the key.

“Without transportation, these people would probably be forced into homes where they don’t want to be. . . . Volunteer drivers are angels in transportation heaven.”

The drivers say they are glad to help.

Said Wayland, a retired nurse’s aide: “I’m doing an essential service that is greatly needed and it gives me something constructive to do.”