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Ride-home service runs on volunteer power |
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Written by Lethbridge Herald
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Wednesday, November 25 2009, 7:51 PM |
The season of Christmas parties is set to begin and so is another year of Operation Red Nose.
The fundraising event for University of Lethbridge Pronghorn Athletics provides rides home for partygoers while driving their vehicles home as well. The service is free but donations are appreciated.
Operation Red Nose is a major fundraiser for Pronghorn Athletics, having raised more than $350,000 over the 14 years the program has operated, including about $30,000 last year. But it’s also an important community service because it helps keep tipsy drivers off the streets. And that helps keep our roads and streets safer during the holiday season.
The service provided about 700 rides last year, utilizing about 600 volunteers. Sandy Slavin, the U of L’s executive director of Sport and Recreation Services, estimates 700 volunteers will be needed this year.
Without the volunteers, Red Nose doesn’t run, so to speak. The volunteers are needed to serve as drivers, navigators, escorts and dispatchers. The majority of them are Pronghorn coaches, athletes and their friends and families, but more volunteers from the community are needed to make up the void when out-of-town students return home for Christmas following final exams.
Operation Red Nose begins offering rides Friday and Saturday, then will operate Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from Dec. 3-19, and again on New Year’s Eve. The service will run from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m.
The ride-home service has almost become a victim of its own success. As the profile of Operation Red Nose has grown through the years, the demands for the service have grown, too. That puts an increasing burden on the volunteers.
Red Nose volunteers try to provide service within 30 minutes or less, but that depends on the number of requests. A particularly busy night — New Year’s Eve, for example — can tax the service’s volunteer lineup.
These volunteers are donating their time to provide a valuable community service that’s also an important part of the funding picture for Pronghorn Athletics. They no doubt appreciate it if the people who use the ride-home service are able to exercise a little patience during busy times.
What would be appreciated even more is if those who use the service would see fit to give back to the program by donating an evening or two to help out as Operation Red Nose volunteers.
To volunteer, call 403-329-2681. To use the ride-home service, call 403-320-4155.
Operation Red Nose is a great example of a win-win program. The university benefits and so does the community.
Sounds like an ideal Christmas gift.
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