Operation Red Nose (ORN) in Williams Lake had a successful and busy season for the 2023 holidays.
On New Year’s Eve alone the volunteer ride service provided 68 rides safe home for those celebrating.
Deborah Pickering, ORN coordinator, said over the nine weeks of operations, volunteers provided 297 rides in total and brought in $13,000 in donations.
Pickering said rides were up by 23 over last year’s rides given and she credited the 191 volunteers who helped give the safe rides home.
She said on New Year’s Eve, there were still calls coming in at 3 a.m. for rides and volunteers had to stop taking calls in order to get to go home themselves. The donations, once finalized, will be distributed among the four youth organizations whose parents helped to donate their time to give many of the rides. Citizens on Patrol also provided many volunteer hours for the operation.
RCMP did not provide numbers for counterattack checkpoints or impaired driving penalties handed out over the holidays in time for this story, updates will be provided should those be provided.
READ MORE: Operation Red Nose ready to roll Nov. 24 in Williams Lake
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