July 13, 2009

A safe ride home

Category: Community, volunteer — admin @ 1:00 am

Get yourself and your wheels home safe for only ten bucks

Get yourself and your wheels home safe for only ten bucks

It happens all the time.  You meet your buddies after work for a drink … only to find yourself, a few hours later, too buzzed to drive.  It’s not safe to get behind the wheel, but you don’t want to pay for a cab ride home, and then back the next morning . . . plus, what if you get a parking ticket or towed? 

Relax.  There’s a solution.

It’s call Ride On.   Give them a call (yeah, no reservation required) and soon after two volunteers show up.  One takes your car and drives you home, while the other follows behind.  They drop you and your ride off at your house for the whopping price tag of . . . ten bucks.  Flat.

Right now they mainly focus on SouthEast but they’re planning to expand.  To volunteer or get their contact info for a ride, go here.

June 29, 2009

Angel’s flock growing

Category: safety, volunteer — admin @ 1:19 am

Close to 15 Guardian Angels patrol Portland streets keeping us safe

Close to 15 Guardian Angels patrol Portland streets keeping us safe

In the past month, five people have volunteered to spend countless hours, walking Portland streets in order to keep the rest of us safe.  They’ll go through rigorous training including first aid and self defense.  And they won’t be paid a dime for it. 

They’re the new Guardian Angels.

Those five recruits are more than a 50% increase over the current force here in Portland.  A nice step towards the local chapter’s goal of returning to the glory days of the 1980’s, when more than 100 angels “flew” around Portland.

But let’s not lose the facts amidst the long term goal.  Five people are volunteering their time to keep us safe.  That’s fantastic.

GNPDX spoke with Thomas Hall who is the Chapter Commander.  While the Angel’s don’t serve in an official capacity, they do have a great working relationship with local cops, often deterring violent crime.  And when they can’t deter, they step in and make a citizens arrest until the boys in blue can come by to pick up the garbage.

In order to be an Angel you need to be 16 years old, employed or going to school, and take their three-tier training.  For sign up info or to make a donation visit here.