Jud Knox has spent an outsized chunk of the last five and a half years in a car. His passenger seat was rarely empty, and his schedule was always full.
He’s also made a lot of friends in that time, often driving them to medical appointments or to pick up groceries in a wheelchair-accessible van. He and his wife Lori started Heart to Heart, a free transportation service, in 2021 with a mission to serve their community and fill a gap in resources for older adults.
“Calls started coming in fast,” Knox said. “It became evident very quickly that rides and transportation for older adults was a major issue.”
Heart to Heart grew rapidly, with around 35 volunteers providing rides from York and surrounding communities. Hundreds of residents have made use of the program, both regulars and folks who need transportation in a pinch.
In June, Knox announced he’d be stepping away and ending the services on July 15. The 77-year-old former president of York Hospital initially started the project post-retirement. Now, he said, he wants to spend more time with his family.
He and his dedicated volunteers hoped someone would take over the administrative side of Heart to Heart once he left, but so far no one has.
Knox’s longtime friend Janalee Moquin, who used Heart to Heart to help her mother Barbara Moquin, called Knox a superhuman.
Knox did everything. He gave hundreds of rides, scheduled every one, delegated tasks among his 35 volunteers, handled the rare mishap and dropped everything if someone needed immediate help.
“I was known for answering the phone in the car and then pulling over to the nearest place I could to schedule a ride for two weeks from that point, or three weeks away,” Knox said, with a chuckle. “It’s kind of a juggle. But that’s how we did it.”
Knox speculated that the true need for these services in York County was triple what Heart to Heart could provide. Moquin and Beth Dupere, a volunteer Heart to Heart driver, hypothesized that the reason no one has said yes to being the new Jud Knox is because the workload is so daunting.
But they haven’t given up trying to save it.
Dupere said she and about eight to 10 fellow volunteers have begun trying to find solutions which could include calling on town officials to step up. The struggle lies in funding, despite it being a free service.
The average out-of-pocket cost to run Heart to Heart every year was $8,000, mostly for gas and other maintenance. Drivers weren’t paid, Knox said. Sometimes grateful riders would tip their drivers, who often gave their tips right back to the program.
Heart to Heart also received dozens of donations every year, including several from the York Rotary Club and local churches. Stan Dabrowski, a former Heart to Heart passenger from Eliot, even donated his wheelchair-accessible van to Knox in 2025.
“We expanded our services that way. It was very, very rewarding and very needed,” Knox said.
Dabrowski has since died, but generosity like that — and smaller donations — were the core of the operation, Knox said.
In a Facebook post in early July, Moquin got the word out about losing Heart to Heart’s services. She had contacted the York Select Board, Parks and Recreation, the Center for Active Living and the Community Service Association to ask if any of them could take on the responsibility.
Only York Parks and Recreation responded, telling Moquin it didn’t have the staffing or budget to recreate the service.
One of her concerns is that people, especially town entities, aren’t interested because they would be expected to uphold the same level of service.
York Hospital has a transportation service, too, but it’s reserved for riders with medical appointments. That means smaller tasks like getting a haircut or attending social events wouldn’t qualify.
Knox and his volunteers also contacted the York County Community Action Corporation, which already has a program like Heart to Heart. Their transportation services connect riders in Biddeford to Sanford or Sanford to Wells, provide rides to cancer patients everywhere in York County and offer specialty veteran services.
They also provide local rides to York residents on Mondays. Surrounding towns have scheduled days, too, said YCCAC CEO Carter Friend. Those services have been useful, but there are gaps that Heart to Heart, which operated nearly 24/7, filled.
“One thing we have been able to do is offer Heart to Heart drivers who are interested to join YCCAC as volunteer drivers,” Friend said. “We would then focus their volunteer driving services in the York area.”
There is already interest in that option from former Heart to Heart drivers, and Friend encourages anyone interested to join, although YCCAC doesn’t have the capacity to provide services to the York area at the level Knox and his volunteers did.
Moquin floated the idea of getting multiple agencies involved to divvy up the workload.
“The majority of his volunteers want to keep doing this,” said Moquin. “It’s a thriving, very much needed service and I don’t know what a lot of people are going to do, and I know that that weighs on Jud heavily.”
This story was originally published by the Maine Trust for Local News. Isabelle Oss can be reached at ioss@metln.org.