SafeRides has done it again.
After many late nights at the Christ and Holy Trinity Church, many miles travelled in search of Staples students in need of a safe ride home, and many minutes spent dispatching on the SafeRides phone lines, the end of the 2012-2013 season is quickly approaching.
SafeRides will be be back in action for Fall 2013, with the first day of end of the year training scheduled for Tuesday June 11 at 2:30 p.m.
SafeRides has had an overall “excellent year” according to Julie Mombello, the director of Westport’s SafeRides organization. “We had over 200 student volunteers and were able to run 3 or 4 cars for the majority of the nights that we were open,” she said.
Student Board member Will Haskell ’14 agrees. “There were very few mishaps and each of our volunteers worked hard to make sure everything ran smoothly.”
The club is also excited to announce this year’s MVPs. According to Mombello, Jessica Pressman won the Junior Gem Award and Allie Daut was named Senior Savior. Junior Jess Riniti and senior August Laska were also honored as the junior and senior board member who have contributed the most to the overall SafeRides board.
SafeRides is confidential, so although Haskell guarantees that there are some exciting stories from this year, volunteers are not able to repeat them. He says, “Everyone should join SafeRides to experience the fun for themselves!”
Mombello says that what sets this year apart from others is the fact that they had to close twice due to bad weather, something that they’ve never had to do before. “Snow and then Nemo shut us down on two different Saturday nights,” said Mombello.
SafeRides is also looking to improve for the upcoming Fall 2013 season. Haskell said, “We need to improve the number of adult volunteers we have, as it was difficult to fill the adult supervisor spot each Saturday this year.”
Mombello’s son Chris, also a member of the SafeRides board, wants to increase student involvement. “The biggest thing that needs to improve is driver availability. We really need those juniors and seniors to step up and work so that we have four drivers on any given Saturday, and possibly even open on Fridays.”
Haskell also believes that SafeRides needs to make sure that after their volunteers have been trained they actually get multiple opportunities to volunteer. “It was disappointing to see that so many people express interest in the beginning of the year but never actually volunteer.”
As summer approaches, the end of a year of SafeRides is bittersweet for members. Although it was a successful year, it’s members love what they do and will miss the club over the summer.
Mombello expresses her feelings with a final word to the organization.“We would like to thank all of our SR volunteers for another success year. We are very grateful to all of our volunteers for their hard work keeping Westport roads safer on Saturday nights!”
