MapSoSafeRides, a student-run organization at Columbia High School, is dedicated to eliminating drunk driving and other unsafe situations in the Maplewood and South Orange community by providing rides for students in unsafe circumstances.
“Thanks to the organization, drunk driving is almost unheard of in our community,” said Emily Grew, CHS senior and co-president of the SafeRides Club, “but because of the record-high number of volunteers we have, we need donations to ensure that we can continue to run and protect our students.”
Grew has created a GoFundMe page for the local organization.
The call for help is timely as MapSoSafeRides ramps up its work during the dark winter nights and the holiday season.
MapSoSafeRides was created in 2012 by Tess Cohen, now a graduate of CHS. Cohen heard about the national SafeRides organization and put together a local chapter. According to a South Orange Patch report from 2012: “Each SafeRides MAPSO shift is headquartered at an adult volunteer’s house and includes a dispatcher, a navigator, a board member, and, of course, a driver. All of these volunteers are currently CHS students. However, drivers must be 18, which unfortunately has limited the number of students available; Safe Rides MAPSO is therefore reaching out to Seton Hall Prep students to be drivers as well.”
Visit the MapSo SafeRides Go Fund Me page here.
View a promotional video created by CHS students in 2012 below:
