Health projects launch with aid from Granny’s Attic grant

Published 7:00 am Wednesday, March 25, 2015

The deadline for submitting grant applications Ã?for the next funding cycle is Sept. 1. Granting decisions will be made on Sept. 30.

Last year Vashon Senior Center director Ava Apple learned of an island senior who regularly took two buses and the ferry to get to his chemotherapy appointments in Seattle. One day one of his buses was late, and he resorted to hitchhiking home.

That story — along with the many transportation-related calls the senior center fields  — fueled Apple’s effort to find solutions for seniors who need rides.

Now, the senior center is kicking off two new transportation programs as one of several local organizations receiving Granny’s Attic grants this month. The grants fund what many feel are badly needed health-related services on Vashon.

“I am so happy they saw fit to fund this program,” Apple said about one of her efforts, which was awarded more than $11,000.

Less than two years into funding a variety of health-related projects and programs on the island, the Granny’s Attic board continues to see a high number of grant requests and recently allocated $70,000 to five Vashon organizations.

Requests in this funding cycle totaled $169,000, according to Tim Johnson, the business manager at the nonprofit thrift shop, which supported the Vashon Health Center for nearly four decades, but now supports an array of health services on the island.

“We raise a fair amount of money over the course of the year, but it is a drop in the bucket compared to the social service needs,” Johnson said.

Granny’s awarded grants totalling nearly $15,000 for two initiatives at the senior center to improve access to

medical appointments off-island as well as to lunches and programming at the center itself.

“We get a lot of calls about transportation. It is a large need. I cannot over-emphasize that enough,” Apple said.

Now, the center’s Bluebird Medical Transport is set to launch April 1. Two drivers have been hired, Apple said, and will take people to and from medical appointments in Seattle and Tacoma. Apple has budgeted for trips three days a week and will evaluate how that fits the need.

While King County’s Senior Services provides some volunteer drivers, it cannot adequately provide for Vashon residents, she added.

The program is named after former senior center member June Mikulka, who loved bluebirds and whose family made a large memorial donation to the program.

Johnson noted that this grant was popular among Granny’s members, who volunteer at the shop and vote on all the grants, as the difficulty of getting to distant medical appointments is clear to them, sometimes from personal experience.

“Not seeing a specialist just because you can’t arrange transportation is a dangerous situation,” he added.

Apple has also initiated in an effort to decrease isolation among Vashon’s elders by employing a driver to take people to and from the senior center for lunch on Mondays and Fridays.

This program will use make use of the 10-seat van the center shares with other social service agencies. Apple plans to add programming at lunch on those days and offer everything from health education to entertainment. Now, she said, she knows of some seniors whose only interaction comes when the Meals on Wheels volunteers deliver food once a week.

“People need to get out and socialize,” she said. “We are social animals. Study after study has shown you die prematurely if you are isolated.”

Sunrise Ridge will also benefit from Granny’s Attic funding and plans to use two grants totaling more than $21,000 to make upgrades at the helicopter pad near the Franciscan clinic. Soon the Sunrise Ridge board will install lighting, a radio-accessible wind indicator and weather station, improved signage and better helipad markings.

Greg Martin, the president of the Sunrise Ridge board, said the improvements will make it easier for Airlift Northwest to fly to and from Vashon when it transports patients in urgent need of medical attention, particularly in poor weather and at night. He noted that a representative of Airlift Northwest indicated Vashon’s need for helicopter transport may increase when Vashon’s paramedics are absorbed into South King County’s Medic One system, possibly later this year. Martin added Vashon’s aging population may also increase the need for helicopter flights.

The board has been working with Airlift Northwest as well as a helipad design expert and it expects to install the weather station and lights this spring. In a phase that has not yet been funded, Sunrise Ridge also hopes to pour a new concrete helipad and renovate the area for emergency vehicles and the gurney pathway from the clinic.

Vashon Island Fire & Rescue Chief Hank Lipe indicated he was pleased to learn of the project.

“It’s good for the island. It’s good for us. It’s good for Airlift Northwest,” he said. “Anytime we can increase care for a critical patient, it’s good.”

Vashon Community Care (VCC), another grantee, received nearly $27,000 to help cover the gap between what Medicaid pays and the actual cost of care at the center. The center had asked for $80,000 and has been one of Granny’s largest grantees over the years, Johnson said.

The services VCC provides are extremely important to Granny’s members, he added, especially because the center provides care for people regardless of their ability to pay, and he noted VCC is one of the island’s largest employers.

“Losing that would eliminate working-class jobs on the island,” he said.

Truman O’Brien, the president of the Vashon Community Care Foundation, said he is pleased to get the money, even though it was considerably less than requested.

“When it comes to the second round of grants, we will ask for more at that point,” he said.

Other grant recipients that received smaller amounts of money include the Interfaith Council to Prevent Homelessness, which was awarded $6,000 to help pay its meals coordinator, and the Vashon Island Growers Association, which received $1,200 for its Food Access Partnership. This partnership provides vouchers for nonprofit organizations to obtain food from farm stands and the farmers market or pass the vouchers on to those it serves.

VIGA member Merilee Runyan said Granny’s funded most of what the group asked for, noting she understands why additional funds were not awarded.

“I like how they spread the money around and make as many things possible as they can,” she said.

At Granny’s, not having enough money to fund every grant was at times challenging for members as the considered the recent proposals, Johnson said.

“The prospect of saying no when you want to say yes is stressful at times,” he added.

Granny’s Attic, for decades a fixture at Sunrise Ridge, moved into the IGA plaza earlier this year.

The move has been a good one so far, Johnson said.

Staff and volunteers have seen an uptick in the number of customers who could not navigate the old store because of its cramped quarters as well as those who had difficulty getting there, he said. The store is also seeing an increase in customers who work downtown and stop by on their lunch hour.

Last year Granny’s had a record year by a large margin, he said, and so far this year sales are up 10 to 15 percent over that. Last month, after the store opened in the new spot, was particularly busy.

“We had the largest Feburary ever,” he said.

Susan Chun, the president of the Granny’s Attic board, noted that with donations up at the store and the move behind them, she expects they will have about $150,000 to distribute this fall.