KALISPELL — The Volunteer Transportation Network (VTN) has expanded its services to Lincoln County, where veterans can get free rides to the Flathead Valley for medical care at providers such as Logan Health.
“They're pretty excited to get that actually moving forward so that they can get veterans into doctors and take them to appointments,” Northwest Montana Veterans Food Pantry CEO Pamela Koller told MTN.
The Volunteer Transportation Network is a national program that helps veterans with no other transportation options get a free ride to the care they need.
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Now expanding into Northwest Montana, veterans in rural areas can find their way to larger medical facilities that they might not have gotten to on their own.
“A lot of our veterans — they live out in rural areas and they don't have access to the medical equipment and a lot of the medical services we do in the Flathead," Koller said.
The VTN is also working with local organizations like the Northwest Montana Veterans Food Pantry to provide buses to help veterans attend stand downs, where resources are the most readily available.
“This is the one place they know they can get their haircut…they can get food, they can get dog and cat food, they can get all of the new bedding… anything that they need is all in a one-stop shop and they can get it done and move on with their lives,” Koller said.
The resources provided paint a picture of how much Flathead County has come together to make these trips and care options possible.
“'We're just a very close community and our goal is to do what we can and find what the needs are for our veterans," Koller told MTN. "We have really good communication and connections with all of these different centers and we all just work together as one unit to help our veterans.”
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