When Calvin Wang of Bellevue heads out to give a senior citizen a ride to a doctor’s office or dental clinic, he makes sure he has a Sudoku book in hand. The 9×9 number puzzle helps him pass the time in his role as a driver for Senior Services’s volunteer transfer program.

“It teaches you how to use your thinking cap, Wang said, who has helped at the organization since 2009. “It’s all about logic.”

That’s paid dividends to his passengers over the years.

Once, as Wang drove a woman who was very unsteady with her cane, he noticed that she wobbled and as she moved. Ever the problem-solver, he introduced the concept of the quad cane to her.

A quad cane, he explained, is a four-footed cane that offers four points of contact with the ground instead of just one. It provides much more support and stability than traditional canes. On his next trip with the woman, Wang was happy to see the same frail client using a four-pronged cane. She had taken his advice and reported a newfound sense of steadiness and ease as she walked.

On several other occasions, Calvin observed a problem with clients using walkers. As they attempted to go through doorways (especially those in their homes), they had to awkwardly turn their walkers sideways because they were just a tad bit too wide to fit.

The problem made simple tasks, like getting to the bathroom, challenging. Wang soon discovered that the front wheels on walkers are traditionally on the apparatus’s outside poles. However, they easily can be removed with a push/pull button and switched to the inside poles, taking away about 1.5 inches from the total width. With this quick fix, clients were able to go in and out of doorways without any trouble.

Calvin believes he has completed this outside-to-inside wheel swap on about four walkers.

“I just do whatever I can to help out,” Wang said.

More information about the volunteer transfer program is available at www.seniorservices.org/transportation, at hilaryc@seniorservices.org, or by calling 206-748-7588.