This year’s Relentless Badger Award Winner from CILWW was Ken Arneson, a volunteer driver with the New Freedom Transportation Program. Ken was presented the award at IL Days in Madison on February 19.
2020 Relentless Badger Award presented to Ken Arneson by Bobbi Craig
Here is what staff wrote in their nomination of Ken for the award. “Ken drives one of our accessible vans on an average of almost 6 days a week. Some of those days, he does two rides. Ken shows compassion and empathy with the riders. He treats riders the way he would want to be treated. He takes time to listen and talk with them. He worries about when it rains if they are going to get wet or get cold until he can get them inside the van. He lets staff know if someone who he rides/drives in his car become a fall risk and should be using the van. He takes care of the van as if it was his. He has done oil changes on it when the staff person was out of town, who normally would take care of it. He lets staff know if he thinks something is going wrong with the van. He has filled it with gas when the gas card has run out. He also has a band and every month they play at the veteran’s homes. He provides rides for riders that most driver feel that they are to challenging. He doesn’t care time or distance he will do whatever is needed to get the riders the help they need.”