Snohomish County, Wash. – Seniors in Darrington and special needs children in Edmonds will have their transportation needs met thanks to Community Transit’s Van GO program.

In all, 11 non-profit organizations throughout Snohomish County will be able to provide trips to their members thanks to retired vanpool vans they received in a competitive grant process from Community Transit. This year, 27 groups submitted applications demonstrating how they would use the vehicles to provide transportation service and estimate how many individual rides they would provide. Two organizations in Darrington partnered to create a winning application.

This year’s Van GO recipients include Cascade Seniors and Darrington Bluegrass Association (Darrington), Compass Health (Snohomish County), Cypress House (Lynnwood), Housing Hope (East County), Northwest’s Child (Edmonds), Smithwright Services (Lynnwood), Stanwood Community and Senior Center (Stanwood) Take the Next Step (Monroe), Volunteers of America Western Washington (Snohomish County) and Wonderland Development Center (South Snohomish County).

“These vehicles will provide thousands of trips for people who otherwise may have a hard time getting where they need to go,” said Community Transit CEO Emmett Heath. “Not everyone can take the bus where or when they need to travel. It’s wonderful to be able to provide surplus vans to help meet local transportation needs.”

Since the Van GO program began in 2000, the agency has provided 116 vehicles to a variety of non-profit organizations around Snohomish County. This year’s winners will each receive a 12-passenger van with about 100,000 miles on it. By state law, other Community Transit surplus vehicles are made available through public auction to help recoup the public investment. More information about the Van GO program is online at www.communitytransit.org/vango.