SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — A Sioux Falls nonprofit is continuing a one-of-a-kind project. Members of the Legacy Foundation gathered in northern Sioux Falls Sunday to convert a school bus into a mobile medical equipment lending library.
Converting this bus has been in the works for months.
“I had a wild idea that maybe we could get a bus and turn it into a mobile library, and the universe delivered,” Eleanor Turner said.
Turner is the president and co-founder of The Legacy Foundation. Once the project is complete, Turner will name it after her son, Owen, who died in 2021.
“We benefited from a similar program out in Milwaukee when we lived there, and we wanted to pay it forward. We discovered that Sioux Falls didn’t have a medical equipment lending library, and after he passed away, we thought this would be a great way to honor his legacy,” Turner said.
The goal for Sunday was to rip out most of the interior to make room to deliver anything from a syringe to a hospital bed.
“This is going to be so phenomenally important to the community because a lot of the calls that we get are people in rural areas or people who are immobile, who aren’t able to pick up the equipment we have, so being able to transform this bus, we’d be able to actually reach out to those who are either homebound or further away,” volunteer Tyler Hill said
And the volunteers who came out Sunday know they are making a difference.
“We see the impact we have on the community, the amount of people who come in here, the amount of thanks we get from people who are just unable to purchase these items or people who don’t have insurance. We’re able to help them, and we can see that impacts on not only the community but on their faces,” Hill said.
An anonymous donor gifted the bus. AARP and the South Dakota Community Foundation provided funding. Students from Southeast Tech will also help with the exterior, and their goal is to finish the bus by the spring.
