Being a designated driver now comes with a perk.
If you’re going into Five Points as your group’s DD, you can get free non-alcoholic beverages, and all you need is one simple thing — a key chain from Student Government.
“Whenever you’re DD-ing, it’s just super awkward when everyone’s drinking and you’re just there, so it’s always nice to have a drink,” said Camila Villacreses, SG secretary of safety and transportation. “If students are going to go out, then the safest thing to do would be to have a DD if they decide to drive.”
Villacreses said she hopes the key chains will soon be available in residence halls and possibly in off-campus student housing complexes.
The key chains can be used at 22 bars in Five Points, and Villacreses said SG is working on decals for businesses to display to notify students that they accept them.
SG collaborated with the Five Points Association and the USC Police Department to promote safety and ensure that businesses would follow through with their promise to give free non-alcoholic drinks.
“It’s a small thing that really does have a huge impact,” Student Body President Lindsay Richardsonsaid. “It really promotes to students that ‘Hey, it’s okay to be safe when I’m out with my friends.’”
The initiative was previously introduced, but this most recent effort is SG’s attempt to actually market it to students for the first time In the past, they were never really publicized and almost unknown by students.
Plus, the old key chains were too large to fit easily on a key chain.
But the new model has been completely redesigned, and Villacreses is now focusing on the marketing side of things.
When Villacreses started, she was nervous about the response, since it was one of her first projects as secretary of safety and transportation. She never expected the enthusiastic reaction she has received so far.
“The feedback that I’ve gotten about the key chains has just been super supportive and students are actually really liking the program,” Villacreses said. “Some professors found out about it and have been giving it out to their classes.”
The key chains were given out initially as part of Safety Day in Five Points last week, but students who still want a key chain can pick one up in the student government offices at the Blatt P.E. Center.