A car-ride service for charity during the holidays won’t run in the Tri-Cities, Burnaby and New Westminster in December.
Coquitlam coordinator Jackie Weinkam told the Tri-City News that she pulled the plug on the local Operation Red Nose service following disappointing results last year, which yielded under $6,000 for KidSport Tri-Cities.
Weinkam said the program’s challenges started in 2020 while the world shut down for the COVID-19 pandemic. It was also the same year that Uber and Lyft got the green light for the Lower Mainland.
“We didn’t run until 2022 and people had already starting using [Uber and Lyft] as a way to get home,” she said.
Another challenge was the post-pandemic closures of restaurants and bars in the three jurisdictions, Weinkam said.
In 2023, many volunteers returned for the eight-night run; however, the calls were down, which resulted in fewer donations. In previous years, Operation Red Nose handed over more than $16,000 to KidSport Tri-Cities.
“I know that it was not the full purpose to make tonnes of money for KidSport, but when your phones all of a sudden stop ringing at 1 a.m., you have to call it like it is,” she said. “We used to be so busy that we would have teams return at 5 a.m. from doing trips.”
Still, while it is not operating in the Tri-Cities, Burnaby and New Westminster this holiday season, the 29th annual Operation Red Nose will continue in Chilliwack and Abbotsford in partnership with ICBC.
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