Natasha Gabbay ’10
Web Managing Editor

After existing for about a year, the SafeRides chapter in Westport has now developed a website to organize their system, as well as hopefully connect them with other chapters.

Westport community member Isaac Levi discovered the organization through his son and found it lacked a comprehensive website.

“On a Sunday morning in October 2009, I asked my son Jacob Levi who gave him a ride home the night before. He replied SafeRides, so I asked him ‘What is SafeRides?’ He explained, and I asked him if they have a website. He said he did not know,” said Levi.

After having this conversation, Levi researched the organization and got in contact with the creator of the Westport SafeRides, Alex Dulin ’10. Dulin informed Levi that SafeRides did not have their own site, and Levi decided to take initiative.

“The next day I was doing my daily walk with my friend Ami Dabush who is a computer program engineer, among other things, and told him about the SafeRides idea, he liked it, and we decided to build a website for SafeRides of Westport and the rest of the country. We called it ‘SafeRides US.’”

This new site allows the organization to schedule driving teams, distribute forms, e-mail members, send reminders, broadcast messages, update calendars, and communicate with other SafeRides chapters who have decided to use the system. Although, people must be members of the SafeRides chapter and have a specific login to access all the information.

“I think the new website is awesome,” said SafeRides Executive Board Member Mac Mombello ’10, “It has everyone’s contact information on there so it is really easy for people to get in touch with substitutes. It also sends out automatic reminders and updates about your shift times.”

Levi’s ultimate goal for SafeRidesUS.com is for every chapter of SafeRides to be linked in. So far, Westport and Weston’s groups as well as the SafeRides of James Madison University are connected on SafeRidesUS.com. Mombello added that hopefully Ridgefield’s SafeRides will soon be joining.

“[We hope to] get all SafeRides to use [the site] and to have it help SAVE LIVES. All SafeRides groups around the country will need this tool and they will spread the word about SafeRideUS,” said Levi.