Oregon daily emerald., March 13, 1978, Page 10, Image 10

Confinement in a wheelchair can be like a
prison. Old age limits errands to walking
distances. That’s why Ariene Link, a Lane
Transit District bus driver, enjoys helping
people maintain some independence
through...
.
Story and photo
By CAROLYN BEAVER
Of the Emerald
It’s 6:50 a.m., a frosty, gray morning.
Arlene Link pulls up at her first
passenger’s home.
Link drives for Lane Transit District’s
(LTD) Dial-a-Bus. Brian, a Lane Com
munity College (LCC) student and her
first rider, waits on the cold floor of his
porch. When he sees Link’s blue and
green bus coming, he pulls himself up
and walks to the curb to meet it.
Although he uses arm braces to walk,
Brian doesn’t want any assistance. Link
feels good that Dial-a-Bus is helping
Brian and many like him become more
independent.
Dial-a-Bus, a service LTD started in
December, 1976, escorts seniors and
handicapped persons around the
Eugene-Springfield area. Monday
through Friday, Dial-a-Bus picks up its
customers at home and takes them to
more than 27 locations, including shop
ping centers, schools, government of
fices and medical facilites. On Saturday,
the destinations are unlimited.
Link, who drives from 6:45 a.m. to
2:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, has
many ‘ regular” customers. After Brian is
picked up, she heads to Springfield.
Russ, also attending LCC, waits in his
wheelchair in his garage for Link.
The Dial-a-Bus is equipped with a
hydraulic lift for those in wheelchairs.
Outside the bus, Link unlatches the
doors to the lift, flips a series of switches
and buttons, and lowers the lift’s plat
form to ground level.
After she’s helped Russ into the bus
and his wheelchair is secure she goes
back outside the bus to bring the lift back
up and latch the doors. Link goes
through the in-the-bus, out-the-bus rit
ual 10 to 15 times daily.
Although she’s a small woman, she
has no trouble helping people on or off
the lifts and dispatcher Johnnie
McDonald says she’s just about the
most efficient driver they have.
He says, "A lot of times, keeping up
with her is more of a problem than her
keeping up with me. We have times
these people are to be picked up and a
lot to times, she will be there and pick
these people up before time and then
have them delivered and ready for
another one and we still haven’t got her
scheduled for the last one she's already
cleared.
"We have a dispatching log that is
recorded. It lists all the people each
driver has carried,” continues
McDonald.
Does Arlene usually rate high?
“She always does her share,’’
McDonald says. “In fact, there’s a good
part of the time that she will do more than
her share. She will haul as many or more
than any of the other drivers. She’ll be in
the top.”
Links stops in for a few minutes of
conversation with McDonald every
morning. He gives her the list of her rid
ers, and she’s off. He’ll call in more pas
sengers over the bus’s phone system
throughout the day. Handicapped par
ticipants must be certified, either
through an LTD approved organization,
a physician or through LTD itself, any
one 62 or older, however, needs only
proof of age.
The buses have four wheelchair sec
ures and six orange and blue padded
seats. Link says the buses, with over
sized windows all the way around them
and power steering, are easy to drive.
An LTD employee for four and one
half years, Link has driven just about
every bus and route there is. She volun
teered last year for Dial-a-Bus because
she figured “if you’re going to do some
thing, you might as well learn about all of
it and know how to do it all.”
Her job’s best reward says Link, is
helping people become more indepen
dent. It especially makes her feel good to
pick up “little old ladies who live all alone
and wouldn’t go anywhere if it weren’t for
Dial-a-Bus. They feel so good about
being independent again. Before this
came along, they weren’t able to go
anywhere. The only places they could
go were as far as they could walk too,”
says Link.
In particular, she recalls a group of five
older women, who live together.
“They especially wanted to go to Val
ley River. The first time they rode, I took
them there. They were just like little kids
on their first outing or their first time at
Disneyland.”
Link always likes to be on time for
senior citizens; “sometimes they wait for
an hour because they have nothing else
to do.” Dial-a-Bus is billed as a curb
to-curb service,” yet Link often does
more than pick and drop people off at
curbs.
She arrives a few minutes early at
Ya-Po-Ah Terrace, a senior citizen
apartment complex. Next to the woman
Link’s scheduled to pick up stands a
man, bent over his cane. He’s missed
his “mini-bus” that weekly takes him
shopping. He doesn’t hear well, and Link
has difficulty explaining she hasn't come
to take him shopping.
Link checks her schedule and finds
she has a few minutes after she drops
the scheduled passenger off and agrees
to take the man to the store, so he can
join his companions.
When she arrives at the store, it's rain
ing. She doesn’t leave the man at the
curb. Instead, she gets out her umbrella,
walks the man into the store and finds a
checker who will assist him in finding his
friends. Then, she’s off again, with a
couple minutes to spare.
It’s important to Link to have good re
lationships with her riders and she cares
about all of them, yet "you can’t let your
self become emotionally involved. If you
do, suddenly you feel tied to the whole
world.”
She tries to imagine what it’s like to
be handicapped, or to be on a fixed in
come. “It’s not like being in a prison, but
almost.”
Sometimes when she sees people
making the best of what they have, it
makes her angry with herself when she
complains about things. She doesn’t feel
sorry for seniors or those with dis
abilities, since she says “feeling sorry for
yourself or others doesn’t accomplish
anything.”
Because the Eugene/Springfield
area has so many things to offer its citi
zens, both “community-wise and politi
cally,” Link says, "people are alone be
cause they want to be alone.”
When she gets older, she plans to
stay here and take advantage of as
much as possible.
Laster named president
Leonard Laster of the State
University of New York, has been
named president of the University
Health Science Center in Port
land.
Laster, who won a medical de
gree from the Harvard Medical
School at age 22, will become
Oregon’s highest paid state emp
loyee next September.
The job pays $64,865 per year,
plus an expense allowance and
use of a state-owned residence.
Roy Lieuallen, Oregon state
system chancellor says Laster
was selected unanimously by the
State Board of Higher Education.
His national leadership in
academic administration in the
health sciences should bring
many “significant benefits,”
Lieuallen says of Laster.
Laster has been Vice-President
of Academic and Clinical Affairs
and Dean of the College of
Medicine at the Downstate Medi
cal Center State University of New
York, Brooklyn, since 1974.
Laster won the Edward
Whitaker Prize for the outstanding
freshman at Harvard College at
the age of 16 in 1944.
The new director will succeed
Lewis Bluemle, who resigned last
July to become President of
Thomas Jefferson University.
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1111 Willamette Street (503) 484-9202
Audubon film
scheduled at
Churchill Hi
"Queen of the Cascades,” the
last in a series of films sponsored
this season by the Lane County
Audubon Society, Thursday at
7:30 p.m. at Churchill High
School, 1850 Bailey Hill Rd.
Mount Rainier wildlife and its
scenery will be shown along with a
dimb to the 14,410 summit.
Tickets are 75 cents for stu
dents.
For more information, call
687-0430.
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