Each month Castle Country Radio likes to highlight a non-profit organization as the monthly Charity of the Month. For the month of July, PERKIE Travels has been selected for their amazing services.
“PERKIE Travels is a program ran through Active Re-Entry and it is a free service, which is a transportation service for individuals who are undergoing radiation treatment and have to travel to the Wasatch front, Utah Valley specifically for those treatments because they aren’t provided in our community,” said Director, Terri Yelonek. PERKIE Travels has been around for over 27 years and has helped many residents in both Carbon and Emery counties. During the COVID pandemic, they had to shut down the service but they are now back up and running.
The program works closely with the hospitals up north to coordinate the appointments for the individuals. “Working with them we’re able to get everybody’s appointments scheduled in a way that we can drop off if we have four people, three people, drop someone off, and 15 minutes later have another drop-off, and then another one and be able to pick them back up. It’s very fluid and it works well,” said Coordinator, Derek Jensen. The transportation service is a great way to help those individuals needing to seek cancer treatment without them having to worry about the transportation of their own.
The service has seen many patients and many of those have come back to PERKIE Travels to help in one way or another. “They want to give back. They’ve experienced riding with the drivers, and riding with other individuals who are undergoing similar types of treatment, and they’ve finished their treatments and they want to give back to the community,” stated Yelonek. The program again is a free service to those who are in need.
“We run solely on donations and they are in great need because we’ve been providing this service for a long time and as Derek said it’s five days a week and it’s expensive to pay drivers, and operate vehicles, and cover those costs,” said Yelonek. If any individuals or businesses would like to make a monetary donation to PERKIE Travels may do so by stopping at Active ReEntry on 10 North Fairgrounds Road or give them a call at (435) 637-4950.