Last Christmas marked the first season of the local chapter of Operation Red Nose, and the volunteer committee is gearing up for another busy December. Operation Red Nose is a volunteer-based national program that acts as a formal designated driver service, providing safe rides for Manitobans throughout the holidays.
Charmaine Gosselin coordinates the program from St. Malo along with ten other residents. Their plan is to cover a total of eight municipalities between Highways 59 and 75, and from the U.S. border to the Perimeter.
“Sadly, Operation Red Nose isn’t spread out enough to saturate all of Manitoba,” Gosselin says. “So our area… just hopped on board last year. We don’t have an Uber, we don’t have a taxicab serving all of our area, we don’t have transit services either, so we’ve just had it engrained in our heads to find a designated driver every time we go out.”
Operating Friday and Saturday nights from November 29 to December 21, and again on December 31, volunteers for Operation Red Nose want to be the designated driver for everyone heading out to festivities and functions where alcohol will be consumed.
Their goal is twofold: to keep Manitoba highways safer for everyone this holiday season and to raise needed funds for the St. Malo community hall. While the service is free, volunteer drivers are willing to collect donations of any size from people who make use of the service.
On November 22, Operation Red Nose St. Malo kicked off the 2019 season with an information session including presentations made by the local Chamber of Commerce, the reeve of the RM of De Salaberry, as well as St. Pierre RCMP and a flight paramedic from STARS Air Ambulance.
Partnering with Operation Red Nose, the St. Pierre RCMP detachment is offering free criminal record checks to all volunteers of the program. Based on dire past statistics, the local police hope programs such as this one can help reduce the number of tragedies on our roads.
In 2018, Manitoba saw 68 fatal collisions, resulting in 73 deaths. Approximately 45 percent of these accidents involved alcohol. On average, the RCMP lay charges against about 1,500 impaired drivers per year.
Troy Pauls has been a flight paramedic for STARS Air Ambulance for 25 years. During that time, he’s attended the scene of thousands of alcohol-related accidents.
“When we talk about the people that are affected, obviously we talk about the patient and their family members, but we also need to think about the first responders that are affected over the holiday season,” Pauls says. “We’d love to have a quiet holiday season and not see anybody in our emergency departments or on the side of the road. Unfortunately, that’s not the reality.”
Pauls encourages everyone to plan ahead and use the Operation Red Nose services leading up to the holidays. This includes people heading out to parties by snowmobile.
Of course, a program of this scale needs to be backed by generous advance donations in order to cover the costs of two-way radio rentals, reflective safety vests, and gas gift cards for volunteers using their own vehicles to taxi people around.
To date, Operation Red Nose St. Malo has received donations from five local business sponsors for $1,000 each. Countless other donations have come in as well, including donations of volunteerism from businesses who have rallied together a group of employees to take on some upcoming driving shifts.
Already the program’s local coordinators have signed up 160 people willing to dedicate a minimum of one night to the program. At this stage, they still need about 30 more to be able to offer rides right up until New Year’s Eve.
December 31, though, is the trickiest night to find willing volunteers, so coordinators are offering a draw ticket to every New Year’s Eve volunteer. The winner will receive a piece of luggage and a $400 WestJet gift card.
“Asking people to volunteer on New Year’s Eve is actually a nationwide challenge,” Gosselin says. “So find a group of friends or find a group of family members and register with us and you will have a ton of fun.”
Volunteers go out in teams of three or four—one drives the team to the pickup location and another drives the client’s vehicle and its occupants home. Other team members are there as support.
Each shift begins with an orientation at 8:00 p.m. at the St. Malo community centre. About 20 people may be required on any given night and will respond to pickup requests right up until 3:00 a.m. Volunteer refreshments are provided as well as tickets for a variety of draw prizes.
It was the St. Malo Parish’s Father Dominic La Fleur’s idea, one year ago, to gather some willing fundraising volunteers to help raise money for the aging community hall located in the basement of the parish.
The seven volunteers who committed themselves to the task were mostly mothers on maternity leave.
“We heard about Operation Red Nose being a great fundraising initiative and all the funds from ORN have to go towards youth or sport and we have a lot of youth and sport in this community centre,” Gosselin says.
In its first year running, Operation Red Nose St. Malo volunteers gave 150 rides and raised $12,000. Since that time, the babies born to these expectant moms have become fondly known as the Red Nose babies.
This year, Gosselin says the committee is hoping to double the funds they raise in order to provide a complete renovation to the hall’s kitchen facility.
