GREEN BAY (NBC 26) — At around 1:30 on Tuesday morning, Nicole Hoffmann said the nonprofit she works for received a call that four of its buses were on fire in their building's parking lot.
These buses are Aspiro's, an organization whose mission is to create work, volunteer and social opportunities for people with disabilities, and they are key in accomplishing these goals.
"We use these vehicles on a daily basis, so this is going to have a significant impact on the services we provide," Hoffmann, Aspiro Vice President of Development, said.
Hoffmann said the buses are used to transport their clients all around the area. With $500,000 in damages, the buses are beyond usable and were reduced to metal frames.
The YWCA Greater Green Bay is one of the places Aspiro volunteers at every week, and they rely on the buses to get there.
Aspiro Community Connector Nina Sarokin rides the buses with the clients every day and said today, they had to take vans and smaller cars to get to the YWCA, where they steam, sort and pick out clothes for the women's career closet.
"Until we have all vehicles up and running, we just gotta make do with what we have," Sarokin said.
Mary Trevelen, a YWCA volunteer, said despite what happened, the Aspiro volunteer group didn't miss a week of volunteering.
"We were all kind of saddened that we would not have the staff coming today, so we were rather surprised when they were able to make a shuttling system work and bring three of them here today to help us do our job," Trevelen said.
Sarokin said it's "devastating" that they can't use the buses because they had wheelchair ramps and other needed accommodations, but they have no choice but to power through.
"We will do whatever we gotta do," Sarokin said. "We're not gonna let the bus situation stop us from getting out in the community and doing what we gotta do and doing what they love to do."
Hoffmann said they still don't know the cause of the fire, but she set up a GoFundMe and said that every dollar will help get the buses back on the roads.
"It's going to take several weeks and months to try and fill the void," Hoffmann said.
Anyone interested in donating can find the GoFundMe link here.
