WeCAB offers supplemental ride services around metro suburbs

MINNEAPOLIS -- During the colder months, it's can be harder to get where you need to be, especially if you don't have reliable means of transportation. WeCAB is a nonprofit helping to ease that problem. 

The organization started in 2011 with help from Mike Skinner. Skinner, who is legally blind, had trouble getting around after bus services were severly cut back where he lived in Mound. He sought help from community leaders to find a solution. 

That helped to launch WeCAB, which offers free supplemental ride services to people in need. 

"Most of the people we serve are older folks. Their kids maybe are working through the day or their kids are out of town or out of state," said executive director Stephanie Alexander. "They have doctors appointments or they need to go to the grocery store. They need to go to the pharmacy. They need to get their hair done."

WeCAB covers the Westonka and Carver County communities. It is made up almost entirely of volunteer drivers and dispatchers. It is not uncommon for them to go the extra mile for riders.

"Sometimes riders just are lonely and want to get out of the house and so they might be like, 'I need to go to the grocery store because I need to get out of the house and I need to see people,'" said Alexander. "A lot of the riders and drivers will just chat the whole ride, check in on each other, make sure everything is going okay."

"I just think if that was my mom or that was my grandma or that was my auntie, I would want somebody to take care of them and so, that is what we do," said Alexander.

WeCAB does ask - but does not require - a small donation for every ride. Riders can call to schedule a ride with a driver by going to WeCAB's website.