People in Motion secures funding for brand new bus

Feb 16, 2018 | 2:09 PM

KAMLOOPS — One month into an ambitious fundraising campaign, People in Motion has enough money to purchase a brand new para-transit bus. 

On Jan. 10, People in Motion launched a $120,000 fundraising campaign to replace its current 16-passenger bus, which is used for field trips, community events, and transporting clients to and from its programs. 

The fundraiser was intended to last three months. 

People in Motion’s Executive Director Heather Brandon never expected the money to come in so quickly. 

“We weren’t sure if we were going to raise enough money for a new bus, so we thought, ‘Well, if we don’t raise enough money we’ll buy a used bus, newer than the bus we have,’” Brandon said. “But, within one month we’ve been able to raise $120,000. The community has really come together for us. We’ve had church groups and employees from Tolko Industries do a fundraising campaign for us, so we’re really excited.”

Daybreak Rotary presented People in Motion with a cheque of $8,500 Friday morning, the final amount needed to reach the goal. 

The new bus is expected to be in Kamloops in about three months, and with more fundraisers planned to help the organization out People in Motion is also hoping to purchase a used van to provide additional transportation. 

“We’re very grateful, and we’re actually quite amazed,” Brandon said. “We’ve been in Kamloops for 30 years and we haven’t asked the community for support very often, so it’s been really heartwarming and we even have restaurants that are doing fundraising, like Mr. Mike’s is doing a fundraiser right now for us. People have come from everywhere, places unexpected to help us out, so we’re really grateful.”