Holiday ride-along service Nez Rouge returns after 2-year hiatus
Posted December 16, 2022 3:42 pm.
Last Updated December 16, 2022 6:59 pm.
Operation Nez Rouge – or red nose – is back for its 39th edition and the ride-along service is in full swing after a two-year hiatus due to COVID-19.
Friday night in Montreal, three operation Nez Rouge volunteers will be giving people across Montreal rides home in their own vehicles to prevent them from drinking and driving.
The operation red nose organization offers rides to people in more than 100 communities across Canada from November 25 to December 31 and it’s a just a phone call away.
Operation Nez Rouge map showing where people are requesting rides in Montreal. (Photo Credit: Sasha Teman)
“Instead of risking and driving and could injure or worse, you know, other people. Well, we’re going to bring you back home,” said Yannick Trudel, a dispatcher and volunteer with operation Nez Rouge Montreal.
“So in the next morning, you’re going to wake up, and your cars are in your driveway. What else could be better than that?”
The ride along consists of a team of 3 volunteers. One that is responsible for driving their own vehicle to the customer’s meetup location, a second to drive the customer’s car to their destination, and a third seated in the passenger seat to make sure everything runs smoothly and safely.
Though the ride is free of charge, donations are encouraged and will go towards supporting youth and amateur sports in Quebec.
“It’s one of the easiest ways to volunteer you don’t need to know the other people or to own a car or to even have a driver’s license to become a volunteer in Nez Rouge,” explained Trudel.
The job also requires a whole team of dispatchers, like Joseph McArdle, who started volunteering with Nez Rouge in 2014, and who has been dispatching for the five operations.
Operation Nez Rouge dispatcher. (Photo Credit: Sasha Teman)
“Our slogan is, ‘tu peut plus t’en passer,’ so it’s once you come into the organization, you’re so well like taken care of that you want to come back,” explained McArdle.
Now halfway through this year’s campaign, the service is expecting the coming weekend to be the busiest to date, as office Christmas parties are wrapping up. More than 10,500 rides were offered by over 9,600 volunteers this year in Quebec alone.
