More than 38 years ago, a group of friends at Lake Tahoe realized there had to be a better way to get home safely after a night of drinking at local casinos. In 1985, they started the International Good Samaritans Safe Ride Program. This program provided sober designated drivers to help intoxicated people get home safely.
Back then, the program used beepers to get calls from drunk drivers, their friends, or bartenders who didn’t want their customers driving drunk. The service was free, which was important because many drunk people didn’t want to spend money to get home. The Good Samaritans also made sure to get people’s cars home, too, because many people didn’t want to leave their cars behind.
International Good Samaritans Safe Ride Program saving lives
The program quickly became successful. In the first 10 years, they provided more than 50,000 safe rides home. This effort helped reduce DUI deaths and crashes in Tahoe, as reported by the South Tahoe Police Dept.
To keep the rides free, the program started hosting an annual fundraiser called Cool September Days Car, Truck, Motorcycle, and Vintage Camper Show. This event featured a ’50s-style sock hop with dance, dress-up, and hairdo contests. At midnight, they would raffle off a donated and restored old car for just $1 per ticket.
Going strong today
Many things have changed over the years, but the Good Samaritans Safe Ride Program is still going strong. Today, they have provided more than 100,000 safe rides to intoxicated drivers and their friends.
The program has saved many lives and prevented millions of dollars in damages.
Support the cause and win a deluxe camping set!
If you’d like to help support this wonderful cause, you can enter to win the below 1955 Ford two-door Ranch Wagon, V8, and 1957 Mercury vintage camper.
You can view the setup and buy raffle tickets at the fall Trailerfest Rally in South Lake Tahoe, California, as well as several other car shows in the area over the summer. For more information, contact Tom and Polly Argo at p_targo@yahoo.com or call 530-541-7300.
Thank you, Paul! 🙂 Beautiful setup! Seems a very worthy charity! Good luck to them! Thanks again, have a great week, safe travels, and safe stays! 🙂
My first exposure to RVing was in an identical model of trailer, but I think our interior was a brown cowboy pattern, at least I think it was brown, being color blind doesn’t help.