Meet Karen Kammer, a Pinecrest resident for 29 years and a woman with a giving heart. Karen moved to Pinecrest in 1988 with her husband and since then has enjoyed its cozy neighborhood feel, proximity to downtown Miami, and beautiful amenities like Pinecrest Gardens. As Karen states, “Not surprisingly, it often feels like we know just about every Pinecrest resident!”.
Karen, aside from being a Pinecrest resident, enjoys helping others as a volunteer driver for the American Cancer Society’s Road to Recovery Program.
Access to transportation is a major factor in receiving cancer treatment for many cancer patients, and it is the number one request for assistance the American Cancer Society receives. The Road to Recovery Program provides free rides to cancer patients all over the nation who have no transportation or who are too ill to drive themselves to and from their cancer-related appointments. Rides through this program are provided by generous volunteers all across the nation, like Karen, who donate their time and use of their vehicles to take patients to treatment.
Karen learned of the Road to Recovery program about ten years ago from an article in a local publication. She became interested in volunteering after developing her own health challenge around the same time, although she soon recovered.
“While I was fortunate enough to have the support of friends and family — including getting driven to and from various appointments — I learned that others did not have access to a similar support system. Not only do they have to battle a horrible disease, but also they have to figure out how to get to their treatments,” states Karen. “The American Cancer Society’s Road to Recovery Program is terrific and fills such a critical need in our community. Every person I’ve driven has been special – the elderly widow who had lost her husband to cancer and then developed the disease herself, the elderly gentleman who still lived on his own, the middle-aged man who was a Miami native and shared stories of how the area has grown over the years, the young professional woman who bravely battled her disease, and on and on. It is an honor to meet each one of them and to ensure they have one less thing to worry about by taking them to their appointments.”
Like Karen, everyone could become a Road to Recovery volunteer driver and help someone in need. People interested will set their availability based on their schedule and three criteria: weekdays willing to drive, time available on those days, and how far they can drive.
Giving a patient a ride can be as simple as dropping someone off on the way to or from work, during a lunch break, and taking ride requests close to the neighborhood. Of course, we welcome your willingness to drive as far as you can go! As Karen says, “Volunteering as a Road to Recovery driver is an enormously satisfying experience, and I urge all who are eligible to serve as drivers to sign up!”
To follow in Karen’s footsteps and become a volunteer driver for the Road to Recovery program, visit www.cancer.org or call the American Cancer Society at 1.800.227.2345.
