Rotary Club has taken over the reins
If there is a chance you might enjoy a little too much Christmas cheer this holiday season, don’t lose this number: Ph. 204-642-9000.
That’s the phone number for Operation Red Nose Gimli, where the No. 1 job is to get you and your car home safely.
This is the first year the free-ride service has been offered in Gimli since COVID-19 derailed the program in 2020, and because the Rotary Club of Gimli, is taking over the operations from the Gimli Car Club, there is some serious rebuilding to do.
“We need volunteers,” said Rotary Club member Dave LeBlanc, who is co-ordinating the service along with fellow member Dwayne Binns.
Every Friday and Saturday night in December, plus New Year’s Eve, the club needs at least three mobile teams on the road, plus two volunteers working the phones and dispatching.
Nov. 25 has also been added this year, because that is the night our local volunteer firefighters have their Christmas party and they requested that the service be available to them, too.
When a person calls the Operation Red Nose hotline, a driver and navigator are dispatched to take the caller home in their own vehicle while a third member of the team follows in one of three cars donated by the Gimli auto dealers. Once the client is safely inside, the team heads off in the pursuit vehicle to the next pick-up.
“It’s a great volunteer opportunity,” said LeBlanc. “Most people say it is gratifying to realize how many people we get off the road; people who started off with good intentions but got carried away by holiday cheer.”
There’s also some laughter along the way, said LeBlanc.
“One fellow got into a car and we drove him home. When we got there, he said, ‘this is not my car.’ I asked him why he got into it, and he said, ‘well, it was running.’ So it was back to the bar to fetch his actual vehicle.”
The Gimli Car Club’s Judy Kushnir, who ran the project for the past five years, said, “One volunteer doing it for the first time told me it was the most fun he’d had in a long time.”
She said several car club members plan to return as volunteers for one or two nights of the upcoming campaign.
Each team can expect to do three to five runs on a typical night. While the service is free, donations are gratefully accepted, but “it’s not about the funds, it’s about getting people home safely. The funding is a side benefit,” said Jim Sexton, who started Operation Red Nose as a project of the Gimli Car Club in 2005 and ran it for ten years before handing the reins to Kushnir.
Most clients want to give something, Sexton said. “For the age 18-21 crowd, it’s mostly pocket change, since if they had enough for another beer, they would have bought it.” Others may give $5, $10, $20. But the main support for the program comes from local businesses.
“Sixty-to-75 per cent them have supported us in some way,” Sexton says.
This support takes many forms, from the cars donated by Gimli Ford, Chudds Chrysler and Shoreside GM to an operations room provided by Lakeview Resort to snacks and hot cocoa provided by local grocery stores to cash donations.
All of this “side benefit” resulted in $97,500 raised to support youth programs during the Gimli Car Club’s 15 campaigns.
The area covered by Operation Red Nose Gimli runs west to Fraserwood, north to Silver Harbour and south to Matlock.
If you would like to volunteer, call Dwayne Binns at 204-299-7793 or Dave LeBlanc at 204-641-4049.
There is also an informational meeting Nov. 1 at 6:30 p.m. at the Lakeview Gimli Resort.
