Perhaps it has something to do with being former teachers but neither Pamela Butler of St. Helena nor Marilynn S. Clark of Calistoga are about to let age or physical infirmities curtail their independence or keep them house bound.

Through the Volunteer Center of Napa Valley and a three-year grant from the Peter and Vernice Gasser Foundation they won’t have to.

Both Butler, a retired St. Helena Catholic School science teacher in her early 80s, and the 84-year-old Clark, a retired San Francisco high school art department head with emphysema, are participants in the HAPI rides program.

The cheerful acronym is shorthand for the Healthy Aging Population Initiative. The program, started in 2008 and managed by the Volunteer Center, provides help for those over 60 when they can no longer drive themselves to essential health-related appointments, especially if they are living in rural areas where public transportation is not easily accessible.

This can mean trips to doctor, dentist and hospital appointments, as well as to grocery stores or to pharmacies for needed medications.

Through the program senior participants are free to enlist family, friends, neighbors or members of their church as drivers. The volunteer drivers who sign on with HAPI rides are reimbursed 48 cents per gallon for each trip.

Now in its second year, the program covers all of Napa County from American Canyon, to Calistoga, Angwin, Pope Valley, Hidden Valley and Lake Berryessa. But with only more year left in the start-up grant, Volunteer Center HAPI rides program coordinator Sharyn Dukes is working on developing other funding sources.

The initial program has been streamlined, said Dukes, and the center has taken over the paperwork as well as reimbursements based on mileage cards signed by the senior participant.

HAPI rides will also cover bridge tolls and parking fees when appropriate, and the center will supply a list of potential volunteer drivers if needed.

“The program works best if someone comes in with a driver already in mind,” Dukes said, “but when you’re a senior and you’re not driving and you don’t know where to turn, when you don’t have family nearby, this is also a great program,” Dukes added.

In good weather Butler relies on her bicycle to get her to Sunshine Foods and to the catechism classes she still teachers at SHCS. For longer trips or in foul weather she relies on a longtime teaching colleague and near neighbor, Holly Critchley and Critchley’s Honda.

Critchley was already driving Butler to doctors’ appointments and shopping when she came across an article about HAPI rides and signed on.

“Before that Pam always felt bad, she thought she was imposing,” Critchley said. “This way I’m getting paid a little and she feels better.”

In Calistoga, Clark is one of the Volunteer Center’s biggest boosters. Legally blind and relying on an oxygen cart 24 hours a day, the Rancho de Calistoga resident says she and a number of neighbors are indebted to the center which serves seniors countywide.

In addition to HAPI rides and the Friendly Visitors program, Clark and others have also called on the services of volunteer handymen to help with simple repairs around the home.

“I don’t know what we would do without them,” Clark said.

When she isn’t off to doctors’ appointments or grocery shopping, Clark keeps up with local and national news and doesn’t hesitate to write the president and vice president when she wants to bring something important to their attention.

She laughed as she added, “Now I write and say why didn’t you listen to what I wrote in 2008.”

For those like Butler, Clark and Angwin’s Janeen Rhodes, who also called on HAPI rides after she had surgery, the program helps maintain a sense of independence.

It’s the loss of independence that’s one of the more difficult aspects of aging, Dukes believes. “Feeling locked in your house makes aging that much harder; the world gets so small. It’s lovely to get out.”

For additional information on HAPI rides and other Volunteer Center services call 252-6222, ext. 229.

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