Operation Red Nose provided about 517 safe rides last month and raised nearly $15,000 for Pronghorns Athletics, according to officials with the program. The volunteer run initiative gives people an opportunity to get a ride home, in their own vehicle, after a night out during the holiday season.
“The financial donations certainly help a lot. It will go a long way to helping with our student athletes through scholarships, different athlete fees and what not — travel arrangements and admin costs too,” said coordinator Kathy Hong. “I think more importantly for us, what we are really happy about is just being able to bring Red Nose back to Lethbridge and offer the service again over the holiday season to help keep our roads safe.”
Throughout December, volunteers covered about 364 shifts and Hong estimates between 150-200 people gave their time for the campaign. The program could not run for one of the planned nights because of a lack of volunteers, but overall, Hong said it was a success.
“We ran for eight nights in December and we try not to compare it to our previous years just because there were so many different variables this year coming back from COVID, coming back from our two year hiatus,” Hong said. “There’s a lot of different factors at play and I think we are just seeing people get back to the normalcy for holiday parties so we try not to make too much of a comparison to what it was pre-COVID.”
She added she would like to thank all the volunteers, as well as local businesses who supported the program with donations such as coffee, snacks and meals.