HERO Campaign Promotes New Membership Card at Night in Venice Boat Parade

Ocean City, N.J. - The John R. Elliott HERO Campaign will be asking partygoers to “Take the HERO Pledge” at this year’s Night in Venice Boat Parade, July 16 in Ocean City.  Banners on the campaign’s 45-foot Viking sport fishing boat will invite designated drivers to join the campaign by scanning the HERO website onto their smartphones and downloading a free digital membership card, good for receive free soft drinks at participating bars, taverns and restaurants. Close to 100 HERO establishments in Atlantic and Cape May counties have signed up for the HERO Campaign membership card promotion to reward and recognize designated drivers who provide free rides home for their friends and family. The non-profit HERO Campaign has received grants from Wawa, the Miss Night in Venice Pageant Committee, and the New Jersey Division of Highway Traffic Safety to promote the free HERO card, which can be downloaded to a smartphone from the HERO Campaign website at herocampaign.org.  The card is available to all who take the “HERO Pledge” to be safe non-drinking designated drivers for their friends and family. Bar, tavern and restaurant owners also register on the HERO website, where they will be included on the list of HERO establishments offering free soft drinks to designated drivers. “The HERO Bar and Tavern program is an important initiative of the HERO Campaign as we promote and thank designated drivers for helping us save lives and prevent drunk driving,” noted HERO Campaign Chairman and CEO Bill Elliott, John Elliott’s father. It’s all part of the HERO Campaign’s efforts to register 100,000 HEROES to provide safe rides for those who have been drinking alcoholic beverages at bars and clubs, weddings, and sports stadiums throughout the Delaware Valley. The HERO Campaign is dedicated to the memory of Navy Ensign John Elliott of Egg Harbor Township, N.J., who graduated from the United States Naval Academy in May, 2000 and was killed by a drunk driver two months later as the 22-year-old naval officer was travelling to his home at the Jersey Shore for his mother’s birthday celebration.  The campaign is headquartered at Stockton University in Galloway Township, N.J.