Couple offers free ride to bring people to vaccine appointments

• Partners Joe Cicchetti and Shirley Limburg launched a free service ride to New Jersey residents to bring them to and from their vaccine appointments.
• “The goal of this project is to just get more people with shots in the arm.”
• The couple set up “Joe’s Covee Car” Facebook page so the community can easily get in touch with them.

“Life’s been good to us, so we figured we could do something good for our community.”

These are the words of Shirley Limburg on the “Joe’s Covee Car” venture she and her partner Joe Cicchetti started — a free service for New Jersey residents to get to and from their COVID vaccine appointments.

Joe and Shirley, both fully vaccinated and retired, have been driving the car around Hunterdon and Warren Counties for the past month. Joe, 58, serves as the chauffer.

“The goal of this project is to just get more people with shots in the arm,” Joe said. “If we can get one person that doesn’t get COVID because of what we’ve done here, we will have succeeded.”

Joe has been restoring old cars as his lifelong passion, which made it easy for him to transform his black Fiat to be a “corona car” for the mission. It was even decorated with dozens of red spikes resembling the virus.

Shirley told NJ.com that there are people who are unable to get around, either because they don’t have a car, can’t drive, couldn’t afford an Uber ride, or live far from public transportation. And these are the people they wanted to help.

“For us to drive somebody is a little thing, but for somebody who has no car and is maybe unemployed right now … for them it’s a big thing,” Shirley told the outlet. “We know there’s some people where they’re just not going to be able to get to [the appointment]. And maybe they can’t afford to Uber.”

The “Joe’s Covee Car” Facebook page said that anyone who needs a ride can email [email protected] or call 908-328-6730 to request one, as long as it’s not more than an hour away from their requested pick-up point.

The couple still ensures that safety measures are in place, requiring passengers to wear a mask in the car, sanitize their hands and have their temperature checked.

Joe and Shirley put up an online fundraiser to help in paying for gas, hand sanitizer and masks, but the service remains free of charge.

“We are not rich people by far. We are doing something that makes a difference,” Joe told the Post. “Yeah, money is important, but people’s lives are really important. If we can do something like this on a very limited budget, anyone can do it.”

Source: PEOPLE.com