Operation Red Nose was another big success this year, raising more than $16,000 for the Delta Gymnastics Club.
The 15th annual campaign saw volunteers get holiday partygoers home safe in the Delta, Richmond and South Surrey areas during nine nights throughout late November and December.
Organizer Carlene Lewall said they were down slightly on the total number of rides this season chalking up the fewer rides to the snowy, winter weather.
“I think snow certainly wasn’t our friend,” Lewall said. “We had one night where we had lots of volunteers, but we didn’t get the calls, which says to me that people just didn’t take their cars to the parties they were going too, which is still safe and planning ahead. On New Year’s Eve, we still had a lot of partygoers that used Operation Red Nose, so it was very successful.”
She said there were 487 rides this year with, on average, three people to a ride. So she estimated 1,500 people got home safely because of the program. Just under 400 volunteers drove an estimated 17,000 km.
During the 2015 program, there were 392 volunteers who did 592 rides, clocking more than 20,000 km.
“We had lots of volunteers, many repeat volunteers and just great support from the community, which we greatly appreciate,” she said. “We appreciate doing it and really appreciate the support from the community. (Delta Police) Chief Neil Dubord was here on New Year’s Eve and wished all our volunteers a great evening and thanked everyone for coming out, so that was really nice.”
