Martin Center's transportation need great
By JODI RALL
For Brentwood Home Page
Transportation for the elderly – and even many not-so-senior senior citizens-- is a huge issue and one not lost on the Fifty-Forward Martin Center. Staff and volunteers at Brentwood’s senior center know firsthand how large of an issue it is.

But today efforts are under way to raise funds to purchase a 24-seat passenger van.

A grant request has been submitted to TDOT to help with the purchase, though the center won’t know if it’s been selected as a recipient until next year.  But even if the grant is made, the center must raise a portion of cost of the vehicle, which is estimated between $60,000 and $65,000.

What to do?

Thanks to some creative ladies who call themselves the “Card Crusaders,” money is now being raised for the new bus.  Judy Chilton taught a card-making class at the center and the idea grew into “Why not make cards to sell?” Now as many as a dozen women, led by volunteer Marilyn Nevens, have joined together to raise money for a new bus by gathering each weekday to make handmade greeting cards. Five cards are sold for $15; specialty cards are $5 each.

To give you perspective on the cards’ quality, each one is individually designed from 11 different patterns and takes at least 45 minutes to make. The toll on the volunteers’ hands from cutting the paper has recently been made a little easier after Chilton purchased and donated a paper cutter costing over $400.

To date the group has sold more than $6,000 in cards and raised over $5,950 for Project Transportation. With the approaching holidays, the group has high expectations that it will double this amount before long.

The cards can include a personalized greeting if a company wants to order them to send out as part of their holiday greetings.

For more information on the cards or to purchase them, please call Sherry Coss at 615-376-0102 or stop by the Martin Center, 960 Heritage Way, just north of Concord Road.