Volunteer of the Month: Liz Schroeter

Behold! Our shiny new Volunteer of the Month. Liz Schroeter joined RightRides in January of this year and has been our star rookie. Not only has Liz been a great driver for RightRides, she has also been instrumental in planning our Get to Know Your Borough: Brooklyn Bike Ride. She's gotten the Ride sponsored by Gimme Coffee! and Habana Outpost so there will be free coffee and corn for all our volunteer-riders! Liz also managed to snag us an event listing in Bust Magazine- is there anything she can't do?

"Volunteering for me was a no-brainer," Liz told us when we asked why she joined up. "I probably call on RightRides for a free, safe lift home once a month, how could I not do my part by also becoming a driver? Besides that, it's kind of fun to drive around the city at night, especially on Saturdays when it's extra alive and teeming with activity. It's satisfying to get some people home safely and then wake up Sunday morning feeling warm and fuzzy instead of hungover!"

Well, Liz, you make us all warm and fuzzy. Thanks so much for your hard work!

On The Road ep. 1 by Morgan P. (RR Volunteer)

*Morgan P. has volunteered for 2 years with RightRides and was one of the recipients of the Distinguished Defender award in 2006. The below submission was inspired by her navigator shift on 6/7/2008. To share your RightRides experiences with the world just send you story to erin@rightrides.org.

On The Road ep. 1
By Morgan P. (RR Volunteer)

I've been volunteering with RightRides for about two years, and I did a new thing last Saturday: I volunteered with someone I didn't know. This may be no big deal to many of the singleton volunteers out there, but I always volunteer with my partner. She drives, I navigate, or the other way around, and we make a really good Dispatch team (I get the callers, she gets the volunteers).

Not last week. There was an opening, and it would make the difference of a car if I could do it...so I said OK. I was a little nervous - I'd have to figure out who Toby was, and hopefully he was a good driver, and was OK with my laid-back navigating style (I don't really have a preference for driving through Brooklyn or on the BQE to get from Williamsburg to Park Slope, depends on where we are and what we feel like...). And what did he think of snacking in the car? I figured just to be on the safe side, I'd munch on my way over.

I got to the garage (five minutes later than I had hoped due to the wretchedness of the 8th Avenue line), and saw someone walking away from the trunk with the green bag. I was the green navigator - I knew that must be Toby. We introduced ourselves, and I was reminded of one of the reasons I really like RightRides - the volunteers rock! It takes a special person to give up a Friday night to make sure people get home OK, and it was really fun to get to know another volunteer.

We took six women home, drove over the Williamsburg Bridge six times, and got to know a little more about each other. Turns out, we feel much the same way about gentrification, the financial district, and banana chips. And while there wasn't the same vibe of driving around listening to the radio that I usually get, there was this really fun getting to know someone who I probably never would have in another setting. I guess it doesn't have to be the first date to get the jitters!

An Introduction

So I guess this is the first post on this blog. It's always a bit strange to just start typing like this but at the same time I'm hoping to accomplish some pretty powerful things here.

I guess starting with an introduction is always a good idea. My name is Erin Armstrong and I am the Program Manager at RightRides for Womens Safety. For those of you who don't know about RightRides, we're a small non-profit based out of Brooklyn that runs several programs to help prevent sexual assault and gender based violence. Our primary program (RightRides) provides a free, safe, late-night ride home to women, transfolk and gender queer individuals on Saturday nights between Midnight and 3:00 AM. And to answer your question, ya... it's really free. We offer this service as a direct effort to prevent rape and sexual assault and so far have given nearly 1,500 rides home. But what I really wanted to talk about today are the goals that I hope to accomplish via this blog.

Anyone that knows me knows that I am a HUGE FAN (notice the caps) of user generated content. Whether it's creating videos or posting a blog I love the power that user generated content gives to the people. No longer are we forced to watch what the networks think we want, or read what the newspapers think we should know... this is the generation where everyone has a voice, and we're going to use it!

So what does user generated content have to do with RightRides? Well, in the spirit of openness, we want to give a voice to our volunteers and riders. The content that you're going to see in this blog is going to be created/written/recorded/performed by the people who serve and are served by RightRides.

For instance, about 4 months ago I had my first volunteer shift as a driver. I'd been navigating and dispatching for RR for the past year and a half, but this was my first time behind the wheel, and I was very excited about it. That night there were only 2 driving teams (usually there are 4-5) so I knew it was going to be busy. About halfway through the night we picked up this girl in Harlem. She was going to Brooklyn Heights, which would have taken her well over an hour on the train (not to mention she would have needed to transfer twice). Along the way she started telling us about how she'd been robbed on the train while making that same journey the previous weekend. It was late and she'd fallen asleep on the train, when she woke up her bag straps had been cut and her purse was missing, and for what? the $10 she had in her wallet and her cell phone...

About 5 minutes into the ride she fell asleep in car... which is very understandable because the only way I was able to stay awake was with a very large mug of coffee. It was at that moment that I ACTUALLY realized why this service is so important to people. Granted a purse snatching is a fairly minor incident, but what would have happened is she'd woken up while this person was cutting (presumably with a knife) through her pursue strap? Violence like this can be preventable, but in order to stop it we need people to stand up and say "I'VE HAD ENOUGH!" and actually do something about it. Talk without actions isn't going to solve the problem... getting out on the streets and physically making our city a safer place is. That's why I volunteer for RightRides.



I want to put a face on RightRides. It is stories like this that make it all worth while, and show the true character of an organization. This is the call out to our volunteers as well as the people who use our services to share your story! For our volunteers, what keeps your coming out week after weekend in the middle of the night... what drives you? For our riders, how has this service helped make your life safer? Why is it important to you to get home safe?

Every weekend new stories are made as our volunteer teams criss-cross the city getting people home safely. To share your story write it down, make a video, paint a picture and send it to erin@rightrides.org. I'll be reviewing and posting all submissions within 24 hours of receiving them.

I hope to hear from soon!

~Erin