|
History of DSK  Drive Safe Kalamazoo started as a class project in the Spring of 2002. The initial idea had been to use taxi cab services and reimburse them for their time. Through research, we found a designated driver organization at Texas A&M University called CARPOOL. With the help of CARPOOL, Professor Paul Yelsma, and the former Director of Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention for Western Michigan University, the hypothetical organization that five students developed as a class project has turned into Western Michigan University’s very own safe-ride program. We are now the only strictly student run organization in the State of Michigan, and one of only twelve in the nation.
Drive Safe Kalamazoo helps to increase the safety of the community by providing a free, nonjudgmental safe-ride home for Western Michigan University students by Western Michigan University students. We take calls every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night from 11pm-3am. We then dispatch the location and destination of our patrons to our driver/passenger teams and our teams then take them home. While we do not support the use of alcohol, we acknowledge that it exists in our community and we hope to eliminate any negative consequences that alcohol may generate.
Over summer 2007, Drive Safe Kalamazoo was given a grant from the Kalamazoo Foundation, and the money was used to bring new technology to DSK. We now run a completely paperless system, using a new program, designed specially for DSK, that takes the information and sends it directly to our phones. The phones are equipped with GPS navigation to keep our cars from getting lost.
The apartment that we operate out of is donated rent-free by Westchester Woods apartments. The cars we operate out of are paid for in-part by Enterprise. Enterprise gives us 50% off vehicle rental and the Western Student Association covers the other half of the rental costs.
|
