After two years of a pandemic that limited the scope of Operation Red Nose campaigns, the ride-hailing service resumed in force across Quebec on Friday evening, where volunteer drivers made more than 700 trips to bring safe and safe in the fold of drunken revelers.
After having had to cancel its operations in 2020, then put an end to them earlier than usual last winter due to the health context, Operation Red Nose resumed in force on Friday evening, with the support more than 1,000 volunteers in Quebec. And the demand was there. In all, 715 home drives were carried out in a single evening across the province by the volunteers of the non-profit organization.
“We were very excited, very proud of this first evening in the province”, underlined Saturday at the To have to the Director of Communications and Partnerships for Operation Red Nose, Marilyn Vigneault. She also recalls that volunteers are always sought by the organization. “The more volunteers we have, the easier it is to get people home safely,” she notes.
To benefit from this service, revelers can either call Nez rouge or use the organization’s mobile application to obtain a ride-hailing service, offered until 3 a.m. in several regions. Friday, it is in the vicinity of Quebec and Lévis that the volunteers were the most solicited, they having made 84 trips there, against 50 in Sherbrooke and 31 in Montreal, in particular.
Mme Vigneault also recalls that Red Nose volunteers never ask the reason for the call when a person asks to be accompanied home. This service therefore does not only concern people whose faculties are impaired by alcohol.
A customer survey conducted in 2021 also enabled the organization to observe that some of its calls concern people who prefer to avoid driving because they have consumed cannabis, or because they have a high level of fatigue. Alcohol consumption, however, is still the main reason for calls to Red Nose in the vast majority of cases, indicates the sounding.
Health context
With regard to adaptation to the health context, “we stick to public health,” says Ms.me Vigneault. The organization thus recommends that its volunteers wear a mask while on the move, without however making it an obligation.
This free escort service will be offered until the end of December, in Quebec as in five other provinces of the country. Donations made by users of the service will be distributed to various organizations whose mission is to intervene with young people or to promote amateur sport.