BUCHANAN — Behind Buchanan Area Senior Center, 810 Rynearson St., beds for a community garden rest between growing seasons. Off to the side, in the parking lot, are white-striped walkways leading from the center’s entrance to a crosswalk leading to the Metea Court Apartments and Mill Pond Apartments.

Both crosswalks and gardens were installed this year at the center under the supervision of new director Adam Burck and made possible by donations. Now, Burck, other staff and the center’s board members are seeking funding to expand its free transportation service to regional healthcare systems, from South Bend hospitals to St. Joseph-Benton Harbor specialists.

Under recently installed LED lights, senior center users sit at table playing euchre. Atop new carpeting, sits Burck in an office chair.

He said that recent projects have centered on capital improvement projects, but next year’s major sole fundraising effort will work to purchase a like-new, recent-model SUV to add a second vehicle that staff and volunteers use to transport senior citizens from their Buchanan area homes to their medical appointments.

The cost is estimated to be about $25,000, a number Burck hopes to meet through donations and grants by mid-summer.

“We gave 266 rides last [fiscal] year, and we found that over the year, we were getting more calls for it than we could accommodate,” he said. “So, the need has increased beyond our capacity of one vehicle.”

About three months ago, senior center staff began logging the calls for rides they had to turn down due to scheduling conflicts. Nearly as many requests for rides had to be turned down as those who received them.

While volunteer drivers are and will be needed if a second vehicle is purchased, Burck said the larger issue is scheduling conflicts. Only one vehicle, a van made in 2005, can drive people to and from appointments. This van is also used when commodities are picked up, such as food for the senior center’s kitchen, limiting its availability even more.

An SUV will allow for simultaneous runs to occur, Burck said.

“We want to keep our seniors healthy, and I think that’s a good way to help that happen,” he said.

After an overnight snowfall, senior center employee Terry Perkins checked over a list of people he will transport from their homes to medical appointments this week. Next up was a woman from Galien, whom he took to a northern Indiana medical facility.

At times, Perkins may drive one person to an appointment in St. Joseph, then drive to Buchanan to pick up a second senior citizen. Once that person is dropped off, say, at a South Bend doctor’s office, he will drive to St. Joseph to pick up the first transportation user, now done with his appointment.

Perkins enjoys hopping from one place to another, but he said having one driver available only inconveniences area senior citizens.

A new vehicle could help.

“I think, in the long run, it’s going to benefit us,” said the driver of four years. “It’s going to benefit the patrons, and it’s going to broaden our horizons to allow us to do more for them instead of turning them away.”

Unlike some larger senior centers, whose users are more sprawled out, Buchanan’s senior center does not feature a fleet of vehicles, and neither the current van nor future SUV will be outfitted for those mobility-impaired.

Instead, the senior center will continue to give free medical rides to mobility-limited users through a partnership with Berrien Bus.

“That’s our way of doing it without breaking the bank,” Burck said.

To help make bank, the senior center recently sent out letters to some area businesses, organizations and residents it was affiliated with, asking for donations. Included was the means to provide funding: by mailing checks to its address or by donating in person with cash or credit.

Typical fundraising programming, such as its Dollar Club program, will go directly to the senior center’s transportation efforts as well.

If needed, the senior center may also draw from its capital funds, a pool growing larger by a recent investment in energy-efficient LED lights in its building rather than incandescent, saving the center 30 percent on lighting costs.