Volunteers, OPB keep Friends of Florence bus rolling for cancer patients

Coastal residents who’ve been diagnosed with cancer can get treatment easier, thanks to the Friends of Florence bus service.

Five days a week, 52 weeks a year, the bus delivers patients to treatment centers in Eugene and Springfield and brings them home again, at no charge. Since the service began in 1985, more than 30,000 riders have made the 160-mile round-trip.

“Friends of Florence takes that strain off of people, that they don’t have to figure out how they’re going to get to their radiation treatments on a daily basis,” says Bart Mealer, President of the organization. “They can just jump on the bus.”

The bus service means a lot to patients like Loni Schofield. “Having Friends of Florence available, to me, means I don’t have to stress about who is taking me over to the valley for the day,” she says. “I don’t know where we’d be if it wasn’t for them.”

Bart credits the support of Oregon Pacific Bank in helping to keep the bus running. Bank employees serve at all levels, from Friends of Florence board members to volunteer bus drivers. “Oregon Pacific Bank has been involved with our organization, supporting us throughout the years,” he says.

Friends of Florence started after P.T. Smith, a Florence resident, lost his wife to cancer. For weeks he had driven her to Eugene and back on a daily basis while she sought treatment.

“He and Tom Grove, our past president and CEO of Oregon Pacific Bank, and some other movers and shakers got together, and they established this charitable organization,” says Lori Gates, retired Vice President at Oregon Pacific Bank’s Florence Branch.

Lori says that, in addition to volunteering at Friends of Florence, employees raise funds to support it. The company’s “Denim Day” on Friday encourages employees to wear jeans for a donation of $5, which is then distributed to local nonprofits like the bus service.

Bart says fundraising and volunteer efforts are key. “The employees at Oregon Pacific Bank that are involved with Friends of Florence — it just validates the need of our organization and what we’re doing is a good thing,” he says. “It’s not just that they’re a bank, but they are a part of our organization.”

For more about the Friends of Florence, see the Willamette Valley Cancer Institute and Research Center’s website at https://www.oregoncancer.com/blog/friends-florence-offers-patients-support-wheels.