Anyone who enjoys some alcoholic beverages in Chatham-Kent this holiday season will have to find another safe way home after a popular designated driving service decided to put the initiative on hold this year.
Home James, a free, local, volunteer-run program that drives impaired patrons home during the Christmas holidays, will not be offering rides for 2020.
Program Coordinator Jodie Hogg said the decision was made because of the health and safety concerns surrounding COVID-19.
"Unfortunately, this year we're not running," she said. "We're hopefully looking forward to it next year if COVID lessens a little bit."
Hogg said the decision was made towards the end of October.
In 2019 from November 22 to December 31, Home James gave a total of 526 rides, bringing 1,591 people home safe and across a total of 16,180 kilometres.
The initiative first started in Chatham-Kent in 2012 and this will mark the first year that it won't run.
"That's why it was such a difficult decision to make," said Hogg. "But, with COVID and restrictions, we wanted to make sure our volunteers and the clients that we serve were safe."
Although the program is free to use, patrons are encouraged to make donations. Hogg said that is one of the biggest disappointments of not being able to run the service this year.
"Unfortunately it's going to probably affect the youth groups that we donate to," she said. "I'm sure they're in the same boat as everybody else."
Hogg said although it was a difficult decision to make, everyone involved in Home James was in agreeance that it was the best decision given the circumstances. Hogg added that she is hopeful that the program will be back in 2021.
