Believe it or not, it was just last May when we celebrated giving our 1,000th safe ride home. Nine months later and we doubled what originally took us more than 2 years to accomplish! And technically, we gave our next 1,000 rides in only 6 months if you count taking off for summer break.
The Story of How We Reached 2,000
What's crazy about this accomplishment is just how fast the safe ride service has grown. In fact, on Feb. 7th, we had our first Kindness Team Brunch and I got in front of the church and told everybody, "It looks like we're on track to give our 2,000th ride in the middle of March." Amazingly, we hit this goal the very next weekend!
The suddenness of giving ride #2,000 actually caught me off guard. As we did with ride #1,000, I wanted to celebrate this milestone by honoring the special passenger with a gift, as well as contact local media outlets about the milestone ahead of time. However, in typical upstate New York winter fashion, the weather all but destroyed these plans. Only this time, it was for the better.
The Coldest Weekend of Winter 2015-16
For Oneonta, Valentine's Day weekend 2016 ended up being the coldest weekend of the Winter, dropping down to below zero on Friday night, and a ridiculously cold -19° on Saturday night (real feel: Ice Planet Hoth). Usually, we only provide rides on Friday nights. However, when presented with the brutal forecast, I made the call to offer rides on both nights.
The result: we gave 135 rides in 2 days--our biggest weekend yet! An unknown rider on early Sunday morning was ride #2,000. Tracking a live ride count while operating 2 vehicles is a bit challenging, so unfortunately, we'll never know who it was.
To take on the subzero weekend, we took advantage of the flexibility afforded us by our downtown Kindness Station. During the week prior, we got the idea to offer free winter clothes at the station, and within days of posting the idea to the Oneonta Kindness Team Facebook Group, a respectable amount of winter clothes was donated; plenty of hats, scarves, gloves, coats, jackets, and sweaters for everybody who needed one.
Friday: -2°, 67 Rides
Come Friday, and we felt pretty good about all of the amenities we had lined up for the station, most of which were meant to warm people up:
After we posted this picture to Facebook, we later found out that the local radio station picked it up and announced our service over the airways. How cool is that!?
— Redemption Movement (@RedemptionNY) February 13, 2016
That Friday, we saw many people take advantage of the Kindness Station's offerings, and, amazingly, we actually had enough brave souls from
the Kindness Team volunteer to stand outside in zero degree weather for multiple hours. Now
that's dedication!
Saturday: -19°, 68 Rides
For that following Saturday, we did things a little bit differently. I didn't feel right to ask anybody to volunteer outdoors in such extreme cold, so we came up with a new plan: set up the Kindness Station tent and table, load it full of winter clothes, and then spend the rest of the night sitting in the warm cars waiting for people to call us, or approach us for a ride.
To give you a sense of just how cold it was, consider this: as Dustin and myself were setting up the Kindness Station, both of our fully charged smartphones died within minutes.
This plan worked out swimmingly. We coordinated the effort so that one of our cars was parked on Main St. in front of the station, while the other vehicle patrolled the neighborhood, looking for people who were walking home. You can image the sheer delight on people's faces when a warm car with a friendly face pulled up beside them in -19° weather.
Plus, it was fun to sit in the warm car and watch people's reactions as they walked up to the station stocked with free winter clothes. I observed that more people took advantage of the free clothes on Saturday night with the station unattended, than they did on Friday night with someone working the hospitality table. For many people, I think they would rather freeze than take a free coat and be seen as "a charity case." The pride of humans is odd like that.
One last highlight from serving that cold weekend; on Sunday morning at 4:30am, I just finished packing up everything in our River Street storefront, and as I stepped outside after locking the door, I looked up and saw a massive shooting star light up the frozen sky. As a man of faith who looks for signs, I took that as God's way of telling me, "Good job."
2,000 Rides = 2,000 Lives Saved = Worth It
As we set our sights on the next 1,000 rides, we have to ask ourselves if all of this work and sacrifice is worth it? The answer is a resounding "yes." In addition to making a difference by getting people home safe, this entire effort helps us to meet, connect with, and serve hundreds of people every single week. For our little church plant, it feels like we've found our place in the community after years of trying to find out what works.
Granted, this is a very unique service for a church to do, so much so that a person who's unfamiliar with the intricacies of Missio Dei might scratch their head and wonder if The Redemption Movement is even a real church or not, due to the fact that we don't fit the template of what an American church is supposed to look like. However, at the end of the night, after taking the last person home and when there's no one left roaming Oneonta's streets needing a warm ride home, we feel good, knowing that we've done the work of the Lord. For me personally, sitting in the Kindness Car and taking in satisfying moments like this are just as inspiring as sitting inside of any grand cathedral. That's the simple power of the church when it's in the community, on mission, and making a difference.
Here's to the next 1,000 rides!
