The Road to Care
Medical Transport in Rural Wyoming
Wyoming Intertie Community Investment Program
This story is from our Spring 2025 newsletter. See the full newsletter here!
The Wyoming Intertie Community Investment Program (WICIP) at the Wyoming Community Foundation (WYCF) was established by Grid United in 2023 to support communities in Albany, Carbon, and Platte Counties during the development of their transmission line.
WICIP is dedicated to partnering with communities their transmission line will impact and created this program to fund projects that enhance quality of life in rural Wyoming.
Rural healthcare is a constant struggle in Wyoming. For people in Platte County, intense medical care, like chemotherapy or dialysis, must take place outside of the county. From Wheatland, cities with this type of care are at least an hour away on some of the windiest stretches of highway in the state.
Platte ParaTransit (PPT) offers Wheatland and surrounding towns a safe and reliable option to travel to their medical appointments outside of Platte County. Rain, shine, or snow, volunteer drivers pick up patients as early as 7:00 AM and rarely get home before the evening. PPT has four vans, and they run transport services three days a week to different cities in the region.
Thanks to a grant from WICIP, Platte ParaTransit bought a new handicap accessible van that allows them to better serve their community.
The old handicap van PPT owned could only be driven on days with the best weather and by volunteers who were strong enough to get the ramp out and push someone up. “It shaked, rattled, and rolled. Everything was out of balance, and it was only used out of desperation,” says Gail Thompson, Board Member of PPT.
When PPT got the Intertie grant, their partner at a local car dealership found them a used van with low mileage in only a couple of months.
The new van has an automatic ramp with a gentler incline, making boarding easier for passengers. It’s also more fuel-efficient and easier to drive. This upgrade has improved service for volunteers and patients alike.
“Just this week I drove a van,” says Pastor Joshua Bruns of Covenant Lutheran Church and President of PPT’s Board. “In the last few months, we have driven patients to Casper, Cheyenne, Greeley, and Scottsbluff.”
Patients are at dialysis appointments for hours multiple times per week. Family is often unable to take that much time off work.
“It’s such an important service,” says Gail. “I’ve had personal friends who completely relied on the service. When they have dialysis three times a week in Cheyenne, their family can’t take off work to travel with them.”
“The grants from WYCF and Intertie are saving lives in Platte County,” Joshua says. “We provide necessary medical transport to our community and couldn’t have done it without the support of these funds.”
If you want to learn more or live in the area and are willing to be a volunteer driver, check out Platte ParaTransit on Facebook!