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UPDATE: Sun Prairie Teen Safe Ride to Shut Down

UPDATED: Friday, July 9, 2010 --- 9:31 p.m.

A teen safe ride program in Sun Prairie is calling it quits.

It started after two tragic deaths but without volunteers organizers say they have no choice.

At a popular lunchtime hangout for Sun Prairie High Schoolers the business cards are still in the window.

Teen safe rides on Friday and Saturday nights, no questions asked.

It's an option that will end this weekend.

Program organizer Eileen Stevens says, "It's very disappointing, very. It was a hard decision but we can't do it."

Stevens organized the program 3 years ago after the drunk driving deaths of 17-year-old Waunakee students Sierra Bongiovani and Michele Koster but she says without enough teen volunteers to provide the rides she has to shut it down.

She says, "Our volunteers put a lot of time and effort into it and it's hard. It's hard to let it go."

The idea, like it says, is to get kids home safely. Sometimes they've been drinking but Stevens says the majority are just in a tough spot.

The sad irony for Stevens is that recently this program has really caught on. They're giving more teens rides than ever before. The volunteers are another story.

She says, "We have a lot of people who've said they'd like to volunteer, they're willing to volunteer, but the application never gets returned."

Now Stevens worries about what might happen without the program around.

She says, "They might get in the car and drive now or they might get in the car with an impaired driver. It's a scary thought."

Stevens says they will be giving rides tonight and tomorrow night but after that the program is done.

They're short about 50 student volunteers.

_________________________________________________________

Posted Thursday, July 8, 2010 --- 6:48 p.m.

Report from our News Partner, the Sun Prairie Star:

The volunteer Teen Safe Ride program, which provides free and confidential rides to teens on Friday and Saturday nights, in Sun Prairie will be closing after this weekend, July 9 and 10.

“It is with great regret that I announce that the Sun Prairie Teen Safe Ride non-profit Program will be ending their Friday/Saturday night service providing free, safe, confidential rides to teens,” said program coordinator Eileen Stevens. “The closure is not due to the lack of teens using the service. Over 400 rides home have been provided to Sun Prairie teens in the last one and a half years. Even if just one of those rides saved a life or saved somebody from an assault, then it was all worth it.”

The decision to shut the service down was made due to lack of volunteers to cover the Safe Ride shifts on Friday and Saturday nights.

Click the link BELOW to read the Star's full report.


Comments (8)

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  • by GottaWonder on Jul 12, 2010 at 07:42 AM
    The program does NOT condone underage drinking or consumption of illegal drugs. Most of us made poor choices as teens & many STILL DO as adults! I'm familiar with the program & volunteers, kids needed a ride BECAUSE THEIR PARENTS WERE @ THE BAR DRINKING, some kids were ditched by their friends & left at the mall, some kids were with friends/dance & parents worked night shift. There is NO WAY to measure the success of the program, but if 1 life was saved or assault avoided then the program was worth it! With this program if a teen made a poor choice, then they were given a SAFE option instead of making a 2nd poor choice by getting behind the wheel. It is good to see that some adults "get the idea" behind the program, unfortunately some adults "just don't get it". Sometimes there are NO 2nd CHANCES when a poor choice is made. From what I know of the program, less than 1/4 of the rides were drug/alcohol related. Thank You Volunteers - YOU MADE A DIFFERENCE!
  • by G Location: Reedsburg on Jul 11, 2010 at 05:55 PM
    This program didn't condone this behavior, but helped kids out in a sticky situation that might have resulted from a bad decision or a friend's bad decision. The only way for a parent to know their kid doesn't experiment with alchohol is to lock them up in their houses and shelter them, which can cause issues later in life. Personally I think teens need a little room to make some choices for themsleves, yes they should just say no, but if it means calling for a saferide instead of driving drunk at least that would instill some form of responcibility. How many adults drink and drive? Maybe if learned at a younger age that there are other options such as a taxi ride or a sober friend we would have less drunk driving accidents as well. Perhaps learning a mistake (drinking too much) doesn't have lead to another bad decision (driving home) and instead lead to a responcible decision (calling for a ride)
  • by Anonymous on Jul 11, 2010 at 03:18 PM
    biff, what a gal or guy. Enabling 20 high school kids to drink themselves into oblivion is exactly what is wrong with parents today. "Oh honey, you do whatever you want, whenever you want. There are never any consequences for you, Precious Snowflake, Mommy will take care of everything."
  • by biff Location: sun prairie on Jul 10, 2010 at 12:43 PM
    hey robbie, maybe instead of focusing all of you efforts on angry blogging, maybe you should volunteer your time! We don't neeed saferide, we need parents who are willing to pick their kids up under any circumstances. i am my own saferide parent to at least 20 highschool kids who know they can call me at any time. So why don't you quit your complaining and do something about it!
  • by Anonymous on Jul 10, 2010 at 12:11 PM
    There is no proof anywhere that this program saved a single life. People are not doing it because they are wasting there gas there time and racking up miles on there cars. A hammered teen is still more likely to drive than to get picked up by this program as they dont want people to know what they were doing. suprised it did not shut down long ago.
  • by Anonymous on Jul 10, 2010 at 09:23 AM
    Oh, I don't know Robbie. Maybe parents having the clear expectation that their kids not drink, and punishing them when they do, would also prevent these "tragic consequences".
  • by Bob Location: Madison on Jul 10, 2010 at 09:12 AM
    Wait a minute, they are shutting down a program that will shuttle drunk teenagers home so they won't drive? "Teenager"-13-19 yrs old? I used to live in Sun Prairie, Just what is the legal drinking age out there ? where are the "PARENTS" when all of this is going on, There is your main problem, not shutting down something that really shouldn't have to be offerred in the first place.
  • by Robbie Location: Madison on Jul 10, 2010 at 08:13 AM
    With this program shutting down Sun Prairie will be facing more tragic consequences as teens will go back to driving while intoxicated. Then and only then will parents realize that this program saved many of their children's lives, but, as they say hind sight is 20/20, you can't go back and change the past. . .In this day and age parents need to be "preventative parents" not blind, ignorant and naive thinking my teen isn't going to drink cause I'm strick and told them it's unacceptable behavior that won't be tolerated. Ok Good Luck with that one as if you think back to your youth, it worked so well then too didn't it. . .As parents, no matter how hard we try or like to think, we can not control what our children do away from home, but, with this program at least parents could rest a little easier knowing their teen would make it home, safely.

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