Thank you to the Gamma Sigma Sigma sisters who helped us give 129 rides Thursday night! Also shout out to Papa Johns for the great pizza. This weekend is Rider Appreciation, and we’ll be giving away plenty of free gifts!
Volunteer Leadership Council
Congratulations to everyone who was selected for the Volunteer Leadership Council! You are all amazing!
| Name | Branch |
| Elizabeth Kwok | Communications |
| Christina Ross | Finance |
| Jon Bryant | Operations |
| Phillip Cox | Operations |
| Jessica Richard | Finance |
| Megan Davidson | Communications |
| Meera Desai | Communications |
| Katie Cregge | Operations |
| Evelyn Andrews | Communications |
| Kelli Ashwell | Finance |
| Enio Ruka |
4/2& 4/3 Operations
Thanks to all the volunteers this weekend! We gave a total 106 rides! Shout out to our sponsors Papa Johns for the great pizza and Enterprise for the cars! See everyone next weekend!
3/27 & 3/28 Operations
Designated Dawgs gave over 250 rides this weekend! Thanks to Sigma Alpha Omega for volunteering with us! Shout out to Papa Johns for sponsoring us both nights and Enterprise for providing the cars.
See everyone this weekend!
3/20 & 3/21 Operations
Shout out all the volunteers who helped out last weekend! Designated Dawgs ran 5 cars, giving 148 rides total! Thanks to Tate Student Center, Enterprise, Papa John’s, and Ike and Jane for making this a successful weekend!
SRPU 2014
Designated Dawgs recently returned from the 2014 Safe Ride Program United (SRPU) Conference, hosted by University of Missouri in Columbia, MO. SRPU is a coalition of safe ride programs across the country that meet each year for leadership development training and workshops focused on growing and improving programs.
This year, Designated Dawgs sent four representatives to the SRPU conference: Sarah Hughes, Patrick Klibanoff, Annelise Wornat, and Leigh Borkowski.
The conference included representation from 14 universities with safe ride programs and more than 50 students.
The annual SRPU conference provides the opportunity for individuals to network with other programs and bring back initiatives that have been successful at other schools. Designated Dawgs learned a lot of valuable information from the conference, including information on volunteer membership structures, risk management protocols, public relations / marketing strategies, fundraising tips, and safe ride operations methodologies.
In addition to training and exercises targeted at improving safe ride programs, Designated Dawgs and other schools had the opportunity to go on a campus tour of Mizzou and visit local staples including Shakespeare’s Pizza.
At the conclusion of the conference, four schools submitted bids to host the 2016 SRPU conference. Following presentations and voting, University of Arizona was selected to host the 2016 conference.
Designated Dawgs looks forward to attending the 2015 SRPU conference which will be hosted by Texas A&M and CARPOOL in College Station, TX.
Fall Semester Update
Designated Dawgs would like to thank the 67 volunteers who helped us give 460 rides this semester! Thanks to all our volunteers, riders, and sponsors!!
Designated Dawgs hit a HUGE milestone last semester, giving over 75,000 rides!! To commemorate this special event, we gave our 75,000 rider an awesome gift bag and crown. Be on the lookout for our Rider Appreciation Night later this semester because we’re giving away some free goodies!
Designated Dawgs hits huge milestone
Happy Homecoming!
This has been a month of a lot of change for Designated Dawgs, but we have still been very busy! Since our last newsletter we have increased our grand total of rides to OVER 75,000! This is a huge milestone, and we are very grateful for all of the support that has gotten us to this point!
The Designated Dawgs team wants to express our appreciation to Gamma Sigma Sigma, UGA Camp Kesem, BYX, MEDLIFE at UGA, and the Black Affairs Council for sponsoring nights of operation this month! If you are interested in your organization sponsoring us, please contact Director of Outreach Cassandra Clayton, at cclay07@uga.edu.
Since we no longer have office space in the Fred Building, we are headquartered in the CSO in the Tate Center for the time being. This is where we have been starting off the night by meeting, feeding, and training our volunteers before operations begin. We are still operating downtown outside the Fred Building for the time being. We are working hard to find a new space for our operations.
We have recently started a community-wide campaign searching for sponsorship from local businesses. If you or anyone you know are interested in becoming a sponsor, let us know! You can see our sponsorship packages on our website. We are extremely grateful that Papa John’s has offered to donate pizza free of charge for all of our volunteer nights! We couldn’t run without the help of the community, and we are thankful to receive such a generous donation.
We are happy to announce that applications for our Volunteer Leadership Council will be available on our website from November 13, 2013 to January 10, 2014. If you are interested in getting more involved with the operations of Designated Dawgs or are hoping to serve on our executive board, this is a great first step! Contact Annelise Wornat, our Director of Member Outreach atawornat@uga.edu if you have any questions.
We are operating two more weekends this year! As always, you can sign up to volunteer with us for any of those nights here
Cy Brown of the Red & Black wrote an editorial piece expressing his support for Designated Dawgs and our services a few weeks ago. Make sure you read it here!
Thanks for your continued support!
The Designated Dawgs Team
Operations Temporarily Cancelled
Because we have had to relocate out of our office space downtown, we have decided to suspend operations for this weekend (Oct. 10 and Oct. 11). Operations will resume next Thursday (Oct. 17). Stay safe everyone and GO DAWGS!
Designated Dawgs Needs Your Help!
Over the past 11 years, Designated Dawgs has been proud to serve the community, providing a resource Athens and UGA desperately needs. Designated Dawgs has provided over 74,000 rides, but we need your help to continue providing our commitment to the community.
We are sad to announce that we will not be able to use our current office space in the Fred Building for much longer, as the owner will be repurposing the building. We are currently searching for inexpensive or donated office space in downtown Athens. An office space in Downtown is crucial to our volunteer operations and ability to provide our service to the community. Historically, our office space has been donated which has enabled us to devote our budget entirely to operations in order to maximize our services. We receive no funding directly from the University of Georgia and are looking to the community to help us find a new home. Please share this with others in the community and contact us at designateddawgs@gmail.com if you have any information that could assist us.
Thank you for helping us continue to keep Athens safe!
