Offering an easily accessible and safe option for a ride home, CARPOOL is a reliable alternative for Aggies and local community members.
Since 1999, CARPOOL has strived to ensure the safety of students and individuals in the Bryan-College Station area. Public health sophomore and CARPOOL executive Sophia Hernandez said CARPOOL is a unique service for all users.
“CARPOOL provides a free, safe and non-judgmental ride home to ensure that everybody gets home safe. You could be completely sober or intoxicated and we still will provide a ride,” Hernandez said. “It’s just really helpful … because it also builds a sense of community within Texas A&M and Blinn [College].”
Luke Hardison, electronic systems engineering technology junior and CARPOOL member, said the organization offers an array of services and events for the community and its members.
“Anyone can call and get a free ride home within the Bryan-College Station area. Our members receive service hours for working these nights,” Hardison said. “For our events, we have a yearly fundraising gala … [and] monthly events for the members to go to. We [also] have teams that all the members are divided up into, and [each] team has their own events as well.”
Ocean engineering junior and CARPOOL member Benjamin Horn said one of the main fundraising events for the organization is the annual gala.
“We go and spend a good chunk of the year making gift baskets and all sorts of other things in order to attract donors,” Horn said. “Once we sell them off, all the funds go to future operations such as building maintenance [and] maintaining [and] securing transit such as vehicles, because we don’t use our own vehicles.”
Hernandez said she enjoys the feeling of community the organization fosters, sharing a common passion for the safety of others.
“I feel like it’s a very unique organization in and of itself,” Hernandez said. “I had never heard of it before until about my second semester at A&M, and I was just in shock that we had [CARPOOL]. I never expected to see an organization doing that, and it really attracted me. It’s a great way to help the community … and it’s great everybody knows each other and you get to … be with everybody, serving the same mission and goals.”
Hernandez said individuals looking to get involved or informed should visit the organization’s Instagram and website, as well as find advertisements around campus.
“We host a lot of public relation[s] events in order to make sure that everybody knows us,” Hernandez said. “We also keep our Instagram updated in order to give announcements, [and we have] signs around campus.”
Hardison said he hopes the existence of CARPOOL brings a positive impact on not only the Aggie community, but on the entirety of the Bryan-College Station community.
“I hope that our services help save people’s lives by offering another option to get home and preventing people from driving intoxicated or tired,” Hardison said. “I hope it can help Aggies have an option for seeing how they can give back to the local community, because it’s not just Aggies, right? It could be anyone in the Bryan-College Station area. The service is open to anyone, so it’s a good way for Aggies to give back as well.”
The phone number for CARPOOL, which can be found on the back of any Aggie ID Card, is 979-693-9905.
