The Prince Albert Lions Club completed its 13th successful Operation Red Nose campaign in the 2025 holiday season on New Year’s Eve.
Randy Braaten, the Operation Red Nose Coordinator for Prince Albert, said the service has seen an upswing that continued in 2025.
“Our numbers keep coming up so that’s sort of a good sign,” Braaten said.
Braaten thought the rise in interest is partially due to things returning to normal after COVID.
“I think the word is starting to get out there a little bit more. People are aware. We’re getting people contacting us ahead of time to pre-plan their rides,” he explained.
“A lot of places had staff parties, they were phoning to find out if we were running those nights and if we could drop off posters and cards for them to put up at their event, so there’s a lot more people getting interested in the service.”
According to a release by the organization, 20 volunteers devoted more than 668 hours (611 in 2024) often getting home at 4 a.m. the next morning. Temperatures on many of the weekends hovered around – 30 C and road conditions were challenging in places.
The volunteers drove 2,544 km. (2,267 in 2024) delivering people and their vehicles home.
The program is a free volunteer-based designated driver service catering to all motorists who have been drinking or who do not feel fit to drive their own vehicle. The program is intended to reduce the number of impaired drivers on the roads over the holiday season.
Operation Red Nose stated that 341 people and one puppy (347 in 2024) were delivered safely home with their vehicles over the holiday season.
Operating over 10 nights (compared to nine in 2024), 166 rides (148 in 2024) were provided to people that felt it was safer to have someone chauffer them home. The number of users increased by 12 per cent over 2024.
In a change from normal patterns Dec.13 was the busiest night for Operation Red Nose.
“Usually New Year’s Eve is our busiest, but this year, December 13th, was our busiest night because I think there was a lot of staff parties that night and they kept us hopping,” Braaten said.
Operation Red Nose raised $5,235 in donations ($4,200 in 2024). The money was donated by the people who took advantage of the service. These funds will be donated to assist with youth programs in Prince Albert and area.
The Prince Albert Lions Club and Operation Red Nose thanked the volunteers and especially the local businesses that assisted in sponsoring the program.
While our 20 dedicated volunteers helped people get safely home, with additional volunteers we would be able to help even more. Braaten asked people and organizations to please consider serving your community next year.
“The main thing I need is we need a lot more new volunteers. I think what was sort of really interesting this year was some of the people that we drove home saying they’ll be back next year to volunteer,” Braaten said.
“They recognize the value of the service that they’re willing to cut into their partying.”
As it is every year local car dealers provided their shuttles to use as escort vehicles, pizza places provided food to keep the volunteers well fed, donut shops provided coffee and donuts to keep volunteers awake over the long nights and the Corornet Hotel provided the service with a headquarters this year.
Businesses also provided printing services for posters and business cards and media helped advertise the program. Other businesses provided cash donations to assist with program expenses. Without this support Braaten said it would very difficult to help keep city streets safe.
“It’s just really appreciation to the volunteers that came out and helped us and to the businesses in the community that really strongly support the program, without the support of the business sector, it would be almost impossible for us to do it,” Braaten said.
Prince Albert, North Battleford and Saskatoon are the only places in the province to run an Operation Red Nose campaign.
michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca
