AMBULANCE PLANS `HOME FOR HOLIDAYS'

DEXTER -- The ninth annual "Home for the Holidays" program by the Stoddard County Ambulance District is ready for Thanksgiving.

Stoddard County nursing home patients who are unable to travel except by ambulance will be transported to any county residence on Wednesday or Thursday.

The free service is available to patients who are not ambulatory and who would like to spend some time with their families during the Thanksgiving holidays.

The choice of going home on Wednesday or Thursday is up to the patients and their families. The patients may stay as long as they wish on their visits, whether it's just a few hours or even overnight.

The return trips can be scheduled for Thursday or Friday.

"We feel Thanksgiving is a time that people should be together," said David Cooper, district manager. The trips will be the district's gifts to the patients and their families, he said.

"We recognize that several families cannot be with one another due to their confinement in area nursing homes. So, in keeping with the spirit of the season, we will provide a means of transportation so that these folks can be `Home for the Holidays,'" Cooper said.

Anyone interested in the program should contact the activity directors in Stoddard County nursing homes. The nursing homes will make the arrangements with the ambulance district, Cooper said.

The deadline for final arrangements will be 3 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 22.

For additional information, contact Monti Cooper, program coordinator at the ambulance district's office in Dexter, 314-624-4528.