Safe Ride Home Sudbury looking for volunteers as it celebrates 25 years
CBC
As Safe Ride Home Sudbury celebrates its 25th anniversary, the organization says it continues to look for volunteers.
Every holiday season, volunteers with Safe Ride Home drive people home, in their own vehicles, if they have had too much to drink at a party or social event.
"This is 25 years of community service that we're celebrating and the people of Sudbury have really embraced the value of the program," said Lesli Green, Safe Ride Home Sudbury's president.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Green said, 300 to 350 people would volunteer each year to provide safe rides.
"They travelled around 39,000 kilometres," she said. "This is in one campaign, and that resulted in about 8,000 Sudburians receiving a safe ride home."
Green said they'll be recruiting volunteers until New Year's Eve, and couldn't give a number because it changes every day.
But she did say recruitment efforts have been going well.
In Thunder Bay, Ont., St. John Ambulance cancelled the similar Operation Red Nose program due to a lack of volunteers. That program hadn't run since 2019 due to the pandemic.
Tyler Fragomeni, a volunteer with Safe Ride Home Sudbury, said he got involved four years ago thanks to his workplace.
Fragomeni works at the Freelandt Caldwell Reilly accounting firm, which encourages staff to take part in the program.
He said volunteering was a chance to hang out with his colleagues outside of work.
"But it's also a way to interact with people in the community and then get them home safe," said Fragomeni.
He said he has met a lot of interesting people by providing rides and has driven some interesting cars, including a new Mercedes.
"So it's a little nerve-wracking, but it was actually really cool," he said.