Operation Red Nose Cold Lake is back, looking for volunteers

A local initiative to avoid people from drinking and driving this holiday season is returning to Cold Lake.

Operation Red Nose Cold Lake is back beginning this Friday, November 24. This is the third year the Cold Lake Ag Society is running the program, after Cold Lake Victim Services handed it over after 2018.

With the rise of Christmas parties coming once again this year, the goal is to give yet another option for those to avoid making a critical, or even fatal, mistake of driving impaired.

Red Nose runs every Friday and Saturday night from 9:00pm to 3:00am until Dec. 31.

This is a free service where they drive your vehicle home, so you don’t have to go pick it up somewhere in the morning.

How to volunteer

The Ag Society is looking for volunteers to help give rides to people, as teams of three are dispatched for every pick-up.

In order to volunteer, you need to be 18 or older, 21 to drive other people’s vehicles, and fill out an application form with an up-to-date criminal record check.

These forms can be found on their website.

After filling out the form, take it to City Hall and pay a $10 fee, which will be reimbursed later, and then take the package to the RCMP for the criminal record check.

Once that’s completed, you can submit the forms to the Ag Society in person, or at coldlake@operationrednose.com.

Cold Lake Ag went to city council last Tuesday looking for sponsorship dollars to help the program.