Port Elgin native Jeff Preston has a message on behalf of those confined to wheelchairs through his Mobilization March.
It’s time to improve transportation systems across the province to allow those with disabilities more access to a normal life.
On Soundingboard last week Preston, who attends the University of Western Ontario, says he and his friends are tired of waiting for special transportation for hours on end only to have no one show at all.
He says he plans to bring that message to politicians and the general public on his 47-day trek from London, Ontario to Ottawa.
The trip started this morning with his first stop Woodstock by this evening.
Preston says he has appointments with many mayors along the way, along with MPP’s and MP’s.
He has also been invited to address the Ontario Legislature.
Preston says he is not on a fundraising campaign but rather an awareness campaign.
The cost of the journey across the province will be about $25,000, much of which has been provided by sponsors.
He says he has seen people lose their jobs because paratransit could not get them to work on time.
Personally Preston tells the story one night of attending a movie in London, which got out at 10pm.
At 3:30 in the morning he was still waiting for transportation service and finally gave up and made his own way home.
He says he’s angry and frustrated by the lack of service for those disabled throughout the province.
Preston has had Congenital Muscular Dystrophy since he was three-months-old and is confined to an electric wheelchair.
Preston will be checking in on Soundingboard several times during his cross-province trip. We will hear from Jeff next on Wednesday as he leaves Woodstock, headed for Cambridge.
