Operation Red Nose will be starting to serve the community for the holiday season this weekend.
“The key to the program is, of course, it’s intended to ensure that people are not driving when they shouldn’t be driving during the festive season,” said Ken Pendergast, Chair for Operation Red Nose.
“A lot of it is associated with alcohol, it can be drugs, it can be just the fact that the people are fatigued, if they don’t feel like driving, call Operation Red Nose.”
Pendergast added that to use the service, your vehicle needs to be registered and insured in BC.
“That creates a bit of a challenge for us now because of the fact that a lot of the vehicles don’t have valid decals on them anymore,” he explained.
“For the 50 per cent that still have decals, we will be checking the decals, and if not we will be asking the owner of the vehicle before we drive to see their registration and insurance.”
The service will be running for nine nights throughout the holiday season, starting on Friday and Saturday this upcoming weekend.
It will also operate on Friday and Saturday until December 17th, and once more on New Years Eve.
In order to operate the service, Pendergast said they typically need between 200 and 300 volunteers to make the program successful over the nine nights.
“When we send out a team to give clients a safe ride home, we have a designated driver for their vehicle, we have a navigator, and we also have an escort car that follows them,” Pendergast explained.
“People can volunteer individually, and come out in function in one of those capacities, or we’re quite happy to have groups that want to come out and work as a team themselves.”
In order to sign up, Pendergast said volunteers will need to complete an application, as well as obtain a criminal record check from the RCMP.
The application can be found on the Operation Red Nose website.