The number of rides provided by Operation Red Nose in 2017 were down, but that’s a good thing, according to its organizer.
The safe-ride-home service, which serves New Westminster, Burnaby and the Tri-Cities during the holiday season, gave a total of 53 rides in New Westminster during its 2017 campaign – 55 fewer than in 2016, according to coordinator Chris Wilson.
“It was pretty much the same in all the areas that operate the service,” he told the Record.
Wilson said the decline is the result of people planning ahead more often than they used to.
“People are just doing the right thing,” he said. “When they’re planning their night out, they’re just planning for a safe ride home.”
Another factor in the dip, Wilson said, was the loss of the Surrey and Langley chapter, which had been run by a gymnastics group up until this year.
In past years, the New West, Burnaby and the Tri-Cities chapter has provided rides to people looking to go to Surrey or Langley. Volunteers north of the Fraser River would drive the clients into Surrey or Langley and then hand them off to the volunteers south of the Fraser.
Without a Surrey or Langley group, Wilson decided to focus his attention on clients travelling within New West, Burnaby and the Tri-Cities, he said.
“We made a conscious decision not to do a lot of rides into Surrey. We could have done a lot more rides, but we thought it was a lot more important that we service the Burnaby, New West and Tri-City area as well as we could,” Wilson added.
He estimates the local chapter probably lost between 100 and 150 rides because Surrey and Langley weren’t in operation.
There is one downside to providing fewer rides, however, and that is a decline in donations for KidSport New West.
While technically, Operation Red Nose is a free service, clients are welcome to make a donation, which is in turn given to the local KidSport chapter.
The 2017 campaign raised $1,942 for KidSport New West compared to $3,600 in 2016.
With the holiday season over, Wilson is already looking to next year’s campaign.
Anyone interested in volunteering can sign up starting in October. For more information, go to operationrednosetricities.com/volunteers.
