333 Safe Rides Home in 12 Nights

Operation Red Nose helped keep the streets of Cold Lake safe over the holiday season, by providing 333 safe rides home in 12 nights of service. The designated driver service is known for driving you and your vehicle (along with friends if applicable) home after you may have indulged in too much holiday cheer.

David Zimmerman, with Victim Services in Cold Lake, says it was thanks to a large volunteer force that the campaign was such a success, “159 volunteers during 12 nights of service drove 5,117 kilometres!” In it’s sixth year of service, in Cold Lake, Operation Red Nose provided its most safe rides home to date. In 2015, the service provided 202 rides and in 2014, 139 rides. 

It wasn’t just Cold Lake that saw an increase in usage, explains Zimmerman, “Alberta had a fantastic campaign with more than 25 percent increase in the number of rides and more than 17 percent increase in the number of volunteers.”

The service was completely free; however some people chose to donate to the cause, says Zimmerman, ” we collected $7,464 in donations – all donations raised will be used to purchase resources for children and youth who experience crime or tragedy such as grief and loss materials or specialized counselling services.”

Zimmerman thanks all the corporate sponsors who helped make the campaign a success by providing gift cards and food vouchers for volunteers, as well as gas cards. Alberta Traffic Safety was a major sponsor of the campaign and provided coasters at local watering holes with the phone number and information about the service in bold writing.

About Operation Red Nose

Operation Red Nose is a non-profit organization whose mission is to encourage behaviour with regards to any impaired situation through unbiased actions, namely by enabling Canadian communities to put together the easily accessible citizen-led safe-drive service and provide safer roads while reaping the benefits for local youth or amateur sports organizations, and implementing other year round awareness programs on the consequences of being impaired.