It’s the final week of Operation Red Nose.
Jo-Anne Dalton with the Steinbach-La Broquerie group shares her excitement for both new and familiar volunteer faces.
“We've had so many of our volunteers who come out every year, come back, which was great to see after not operating for a couple of years. We have this really great core group and lots of new volunteer faces too, which has been awesome,”
They had between 13 to 20 volunteers every night and provided almost 100 rides in the first six nights alone. Dalton expresses her appreciation for the community stepping up.
“We have a really great crew who's out there every night operating, talking to people, stopping in at all kind of the hotspots around town. We think they've become known in the community for that safe ride option on a Friday, Saturday night,” Dalton said.
Today, December 30th and the 31st are the final ride days of the season.
“Call us at 204-424-9555 about half an hour at least before you want your ride home,” Dalton said. “We are still looking for volunteers, so if you don't have plans and you want to make a difference and give back and be part of this incredible project that saves lives and supports youth in our community, give us a call at that same number and sign up to volunteer.”
It has been a busy season for Charmaine Gosselin and the St. Malo group.
“The weekend of the 16th and 17th, we, unfortunately, had to cancel one night because of inclement weather. But then the following day on the 17th we thought, ‘Okay, we'll take it easy. We'll have some teams we'll still run, but we'll take it easy and slow,’ and it ended up being our biggest ride night of the year,”
Gosselin adds that calling ahead to pre-book isn’t allowed. However, the messages they receive ahead of time provide them with an idea of what the night will look like.
“We love knowing those heads-ups because if you we only have four or five teams that night, we can plan ahead. We're going to be in the Rosa area or we're going to be in Ile-des-Chenes or Grand Point area to start,”
With New Year’s Eve socials across the area, they anticipate many calls for rides.
“We're doing really good for volunteers. This weekend we will take anyone who steps up. We have five teams for tonight and we have five teams for New Year's Eve tomorrow, so if anyone’s plans fall through, step right up and come and volunteer for us, we will take you. We know we've got a lot of events going on this weekend.” Gosselin said.
For those in St. Malo and area who are interested in a ride or volunteering, you can contact them at 204-347-5518.
With files from Dave Anthony.