"James" with Home James, poses with  Chatham-Kent OPP officers, November 18, 2016 (Photo by Jake Kislinsky)"James" with Home James, poses with Chatham-Kent OPP officers, November 18, 2016 (Photo by Jake Kislinsky)
Chatham

Donations Up For Home James

Despite a struggle to recruit volunteers, the number of riders and donations stayed the pretty much the same for Chatham-Kent's designated driver program during the 2017 holiday season.

Home James provided over 516 rides through December.

"We were nine rides down from last year," says Program Coordinator Jodie Hogg. "We did 16,193 km this year, which is 7 km more than we did last year. And we took home 1,119 people, so we were down by about 22 people."

Hogg says they struggled to get volunteers.

"I've heard that all volunteer programs are hurting for volunteers. We definitely were down this year, we only had about 40 to 45 volunteers this year."

Despite fewer volunteers and giving fewer rides, they still managed to raise $11,622.45, about $800 more than in 2016 for a number of local non-profit and charity groups.

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File photo courtesy of  © Can Stock Photo Inc. / dehooks

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