By Aidan Mortensen | KOAL News
When it comes to fighting cancer in Castle Country, no one has to fight the battle alone. One service that looks to offset the cost of travel for cancer treatment is Active Re-Entry’s PERKIE Travels. The organization’s continuous dedication to serving the community has earned it the nod for Castle Country Radio’s March Charity of the Month.
Running for over 30 years, the program began in 1994 when Lisa Perla-Martinez was driving her Aunt Perkie to radiation treatment daily, and noticed how many residents of Carbon and Emery County were making the same trip.
Since its inception, the program has helped hundreds of individuals make the trip for treatment while building a strong community in the Castle Country.
Derek Jensen and Kelly Trollin joined the KOAL newsroom to discuss the program and its goal of aiding the community.
“PERKIE Travels is Active Re-Entry’s radiation transportation service. We offer rides to people receiving radiation treatments at Utah Valley, Revere, and Timpanogos hospitals. We go as needed, but usually it’s five days a week,” explained Jensen of the program.
Trollin, who recently became the PERKIE Travels coordinator, shared what impressed her most about the program: “I thought I knew what active re-entry was when I took this job and just how much more it is than I ever imagined.”
She added,” PERKIE Travels is amazing. Everything that it stands for, I love that we get to be a part of that for everybody to help them get to where they need to go.”
Moving into the nitty-gritty, Trollin discussed how individuals can sign up for the PERKIE service: “So they just reach out to Active Re-Entry, and we get them signed up, and we get them signed up, and they can start as needed.”
To contact Active Re-Entry, call 435-637-4950 or visit arecil.org.
Looking at the community impact that PERKIE has, Jensen spoke on what impresses him most about the program,” I think for me anyways, it’s getting to know the people. You know, a lot of people come between three and six weeks, sometimes eight weeks, and you develop a relationship with these folks every single morning. They come in, see how they’re doing. You know, you can tell when they have bad days, you can tell when they have good days. And so being able to see those guys every morning, see them off, and see them when they come back, to me, has always been a great thing. And just being able to help them outside of PERKIE Travels if they need anything besides that.”
For those who want to get involved with PERKIE, Trollin explained how community members can go about it : “We always take donations for gas prices and maintenance. We’re always looking for donations, help, and those kinds of things to serve the community better.
She added,” If someone wants to come in and become a part-time driver, we do an on-call driver program. And so if we have someone who isn’t going to work on a usual day, we could call you to see if you wanted to come up. It’s a great opportunity.”
Closing our conversation, Jensen stated,” Just give us a call if you need help. Any of us can help; it doesn’t have to be Kelly or me. We’re all standing by waiting for you to call.”
For more information on PERKIE Travels, call 435-637-4950 or visit arecil.org.