Last night’s City Council meeting was unusually packed. There wasn’t any particular hot bed issue on the agenda, yet it was standing room only. One could not help but notice the sea of white shirts seated in the last four rows, and their relatively young age was not exactly the norm for this type of establishment.
They were the faces of SafeRides, a now twenty year old organization that has devoted its volunteer time to keeping the teenagers of this valley safe.
SafeRides is a peer program that consists of teens giving their Friday and Saturday nights up to be on call for other teens that may need a sober ride home, no questions asked.
Why exactly the kids need sober rides may vary, but that isn’t in the mission of SafeRides. They are there to help curb the incidences of our city’s youth getting behind the wheel when they’ve had too much to drink, or getting in the car with someone who has had too much to drink.
SafeRides provides an option, when many kids would otherwise rather chance it on the road then call their parents for help.
So SafeRides turned twenty years old and the council honored them, and their founder Penny Upton for their work in reducing needless teen tragedies.