Holiday Drive for Victims

As fall approaches, many of us begin planning for the holidays, such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. Thinking about the holiday season encourages many to begin looking forward to spending time with family. We realize how important our loved ones are, especially when we can no longer hug them or tell them how much we love them.

For the families we work with, this time of year throughout New Years is the hardest. The Holiday Drive for Victims serves as an opportunity for our victims and volunteers to join the DUI Victims Center of Kansas and local law enforcement in a special way by honoring their loved ones throughout the holiday season.

We are needing volunteers to help distribute personalized magnets, as well as ribbons, with victims names, in order to not only honor our injured and lost loved ones, but to also raise awareness of DUI crimes and crashes during the holiday season when everyone is getting together for holiday merriment, which usually includes alcohol and other things that can lead to impaired driving. We write the names of victims from throughout the state of Kansas onto thousands of magnets and red ribbons. The names on the ribbons are our way of remembering all those who have been injured and lost by an under the influence driver. Then, staff and volunteers travel to law enforcement agencies all over the state and distribute the magnets and tie the ribbons to patrol car antennas. Law enforcement leave the red ribbons on their car antenna throughout the holiday season until the new year but if you look hard enough, you’ll see patrol cars that keep their memorial on their vehicles all year around!

In addition to providing the magnets and ribbons to law enforcement, we also provide them with a light snack-typically sandwiches and cookies as a way to say thank you for all they do to support our mission, as well as working through the holidays, being away from their families to protect ours.