Throwing students a much-needed Lifeline

When it comes to student safety, the Rockville Centre Youth Council knows exactly where to start: the Long Island Railroad Station late on a Friday night, where the underage gather after bacchanalian evenings in New York City, desperate for a ride.

That’s why the Youth Council implemented the Student Lifeline program in 2008, which gives free rides to young people who have no safe way to get home. The program, now in its sixth year, is a partnership between the Council and Student Lifeline, a company that provides payments to participating taxi and limousine firms in order to get children safely home.

The idea for such a partnership came to Mike Caffrey, the Council’s president, on a ride home from New York a few years ago. “I was on the train, [and] there were kids on the train drinking,” he said. “They were looking for rides home. The [taxi] driver was in the vestibule at the train station — drinking Peppermint Schnapps, actually.”

So Caffrey went to Mayor Bossart, who gave her support, and eventually someone suggested Student Lifeline. The company, which provides Lifeline Cards to students gratis, will fund up to $100 per cab ride, 24 hours a day yearlong, for any student who calls Lifeline’s toll-free number. The cards are distributed by partner organizations in public spaces — restaurants, coffee shops and libraries, among others — and funded by participating businesses, which purchase advertising space on the cards. This year, Youth Council Leaders Molly Quinn, Sofia Tavella and Tara O’Hagan have distributed Student Lifeline cards to a number of local businesses, in order to make them readily accessible to students.

The Youth Council has distributed countless cards around Rockville Centre since the inception of the program — and the strategy appears to be working. In 2012, there were 224 approved rides given in the village, and preliminary data for 2013 collected by the Council appears somewhat more active. and Caffrey estimates that the program has facilitated more than 400 rides in the past few years. “It’s a great thing,” he said. “We have a problem with kids drinking nowadays, and it’s not uncommon for kids to get a little carried away with themselves.”

Any students or parents hoping to learn more about the Student Lifeline program, or businesses interested in distributing or funding the cards, should email the Youth Council.