Our 18th gathering of community groups to celebrate Swansea's status as a City was also a bit of a getting-to-know-you event, but not just for me and the Lady Mayoress.
Gower Voluntary Transport is based in Penclawdd Community Centre, and provides a vital service for the elderly, disabled and isolated in Gower. They are one of a number of community transport schemes in Swansea run entirely by volunteers.
Effectively they provide cheap transport through volunteer drivers, all co-ordinated from a central point. Passengers are charged 60p a mile, often as little as a quarter of the cost of doing the same journey in a taxi.
But the volunteers are not providing a taxi service, drivers will go above and beyond, taking passengers on shopping trips or waiting with them at the hospital until they have been seen by a consultant, or had their blood test.
All of this is coordinated from a central point, and in normal circumstances, those booking the journeys will not meet the drivers, whilst the drivers themselves rarely meet each other. Today was a bit unique therefore as all the volunteers became acquainted with each other.
It was a lovely afternoon and it was good to be able to host and facilitate it.
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