Safe Ride Seeks Volunteers

Karin Bloom, M.S.
Project Director , Palo Alto Drug Alcohol Community Collaborative (PADACC)

Safe Ride, run by American Red Cross Silicon Valley Chapter youth volunteers, is ready to start up again with the new school year. The program offers high school students an alternative to driving while intoxicated or riding with an intoxicated driver. Instead, students can call the toll-free Safe Ride number (1-877-753-RIDE) and two trained and sober local teens will arrive to transport the caller safely to their house. The service is completely free and confidential.

Every Friday and Saturday night, teams of student volunteers, working with a trained adult supervisor, man a hotline at the American Red Cross Silicon Valley Chapter’s Palo Alto office. They answer calls and dispatch two-person driver teams to pick up students in a Red Cross vehicle. Last year, the Safe Ride program had 45 volunteer drivers, who provided over 600 rides.

Lucas Matze, a student coordinator for Safe Ride, says, “It is a unique program that provides vital safety to our community. I volunteer for Safe Ride because I know that my work is doing good. Every time I drop someone off at their house, it's one less person on the road, potentially endangering themselves or others.”
Lucas and other students like him logged over 1,500 hours of volunteer time in the 2008-2009 school year. These dedicated volunteers also promote the Safe Ride program at their schools and in their community, recruiting other volunteers, holding fundraisers and providing peer education on the dangers of drinking and driving. According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, traffic crashes are the number one killer of teens (15-20 years old) and 31% of teen traffic deaths are alcohol-related. In 2007 an estimated 7.8 percent of 16 or 17 year olds reported driving under the influence of alcohol in the past year.

Safe Ride was created in 1984 by a group of high school students from Palo Alto and Gunn High School who lost a friend in a car accident caused by teen drunk driving. 25 years later, thousands of local teens have been saved from the perils of drunk driving thanks to Safe Ride. The program has spread to eight different high schools throughout the region. Participating schools include Palo Alto, Gunn, Castilleja, Sacred Heart Prep, Los Altos, Mountain View, Menlo and Menlo Atherton.

Safe Ride exists because of the efforts of many great volunteers and the generous support of public donations. For more information or to find out how you can support or volunteer for Safe Ride, contact Gabriela Pierre at pierreg@usa.redcross.org.

About American Red Cross Silicon Valley Chapter
Founded in January 2009 with the merger of the Palo Alto Area and Santa Clara Valley chapters, the American Red Cross Silicon Valley Chapter is a non-profit, humanitarian organization that depends on the generous contributions of time and money from Santa Clara County residents and companies to provide services and programs that help our community prevent, prepare for and respond to emergencies. For more information on disaster preparedness, health and safety classes, volunteer opportunities, and financial contributions, visit our website at www.siliconvalley-redcross.org or call us at 1-877-727-6771.