Gas prices pinch charities, volunteers

Patricia Gallagher keeps her spiritual motor running by volunteering weekly at an elementary school, her church, a hospital and by delivering meals in Rockland.

The cost of keeping her Toyota Camry going, however, has become far more expensive. She pays about $60 a week to fill up.

For now, Gallagher, 85, a New City resident, has no intention of scaling back. Her stop-and-start driving, and turning the car on and off repeatedly during her Meals on Wheels route through Nanuet's neighborhoods, uses more gas than the 11 miles she drives would suggest.

"I'm not going to let it stop me, I hope, unless things get that serious," Gallagher said of gas prices that have surpassed $4.25 a gallon in Rockland. "It's good to be busy. It feels nice to help other people."

Nonprofits in the Lower Hudson Valley are feeling the pinch of record fuel costs. More people who use their own cars to drive the elderly to medical appointments or bring food to their homes are asking for a few bucks to cover gas from the agencies, which themselves are struggling to deal with budget shortfalls due to rising transportation costs.

The good feelings people get from helping others may be reaching a tipping point, as the reality of higher food prices, job insecurity and a tight economy sink in.

A survey released last month by the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging found that rising fuel costs are having a direct effect on volunteers. Nearly three out of four (73 percent) agencies reported it was harder to retain volunteers, and 74 percent said it was more difficult to recruit them.

One Rockland nonprofit agency that provides volunteers to other nonprofits offers generous mileage reimbursement to volunteers 55 and older. It expects to be flooded in the coming weeks, as the nonprofits encourage their volunteers to sign up through the agency.

"A lot of my volunteers are seniors themselves living on fixed incomes, and with the price of gas skyrocketing, they're getting second thoughts about volunteering," said Ann Menendez, executive director of the South Rockland Interfaith Volunteer Caregivers.

The Congers-based agency relies on 30 volunteers to drive 100 Clarkstown and Orangetown residents to grocery stores, doctor's appointments, even for haircuts.

The majority of the volunteers don't get reimbursed, and a few have recently asked Menendez to schedule them for shorter trips.

Harold Lindland estimated he and his wife, Betty, drove 500 to 700 miles for the agency last year.

A typical trip could see them drive from their New City home to a senior citizen center in Sparkill to pick up their client and then to a doctor's office in Pomona. Counting the return trip, the total distance easily exceeds 50 miles.

"I'm one of those people who don't pay too much attention to the mileage," said Lindland, 76.

Lindland, a retired McGraw-Hill marketing manager, counts himself among the fortunate. Like Gallagher, he is still married, has a generous pension and is able to absorb the extra costs in order to volunteer.

For years, Meals on Wheels Programs and Services of Rockland offered a $3 weekly gas allowance to its volunteer drivers, who typically spend an hour once a week delivering meals to senior citizens, the disabled or the needy.

Hardly anyone took it.

Now that's changing.

Three people recently have signed up for the gas allowance, which is paid by check every three months, and others are considering it, said Carissa Coslit, volunteer coordinator for Meals on Wheels. In total, 20 of 220 drivers receive it.

"I've had cases where people have called and said, 'We're so sorry. We don't want to do this to you, but we do need a little bit of help,'" Coslit said, noting many of the volunteers are retirees on fixed incomes or stay-at-home moms.

While the agency has lost one volunteer because of gas prices, others have stepped up and offered to take more routes, Coslit said.

Naomi Adler, president of United Way of Westchester and Putnam, said most of her 80 partner agencies plan their budgets nine months to a year ahead. Few expected gas prices to reach these dizzying heights, forcing them to raise mileage reimbursement for staff and cut back on travel, but fewer still expected they would have to offer incentives to hold on to volunteers.

"They have deficits in their budgets and they don't know what they're going to be doing to cover their deficits," Adler said recently.

The Cancer Support Team, which uses volunteer drivers to take cancer patients in southern Westchester to medical appointments and chemotherapy treatment, has plenty of people willing to help out. But sometimes the patients don't feel comfortable traveling with strangers, so the agency has started a new program that allows a neighbor or family member to drive the patients, knowing that they will be reimbursed for their gas and parking.

"There are people that maybe have the time, you know them and you like them, but you can't afford to reimburse them, so we've offered to do that," said Virginia Beirne, who is the Cancer Support Team's business administrator.

Only one person has used that program so far.

The nonprofit in Mamaroneck, which serves about 325 patients a year, recently raised its mileage reimbursement rate for its four nurses who visit patients in their home. The rate is now 47 cents per mile, up from 40 cents.

"It is a bind, but obviously our nurses are feeling the pinch of gas" prices, Beirne said.

Back in Rockland, nonprofits are encouraging their volunteers to sign up with the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program. The Spring Valley agency matches Rockland residents 55 and older - one doesn't need to be retired - with local nonprofit groups that could use their help.

It pays volunteers for the miles they drive to and from their job; and in cases where their volunteering duties call for them to drive, those miles are covered too.

Gerri Zabusky, RSVP's executive director, said more than 70 percent of its 600 volunteers drive to 100 agencies it serves. The others use two RSVP shuttle vans.

Since the start of the year, as gas prices have escalated, more volunteers are asking to be reimbursed for their mileage.

"More volunteers who already were driving but never asked for mileage reimbursement before, well, now they're asking for it for the first time," Zabusky said.

The agency is up to 208 volunteers who receive 48.5 cents per mile, with a cap of $40 a month.

A year ago, RSVP was paying 25 cents a mile, up to $25 a month, but Zabusky said she wanted to support her volunteers so she increased the rate. Because of the volume, she might have to lower it to 40 cents or lower the monthly cap.

RSVP has $12,000 in its mileage reimbursement fund, she said, and it is being depleted quickly.

"I'm going to run out this year. That ($12,000) isn't going to make it for me. Not this year. There's no way," Zabusky said.

With no new funding sources in sight, Zabusky said she'll save where she can, such as cutting down on office supplies. More volunteers signing up to claim mileage every week places a further strain on her budget, but she said RSVP will meet the challenge.

"If this is what's going to keep them volunteering, then I'm going to find a way to find other funding," she said. "But it's not so easy to do."

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