Biz Buzz

Hand Over Those Keys. If you've ever realized you had one too many drinks at the end of the night when cash is low and your sober friends have all gone home, Missy's keys4cabs offers a safe and free solution. Missy's keys4cabs gives customers the freedom to ask their servers for a free cab home in exchange for their car key when they know they've had too much too drink say's Elizabeth Justice Missy's keys4cabs volunteer.

This program was created in honor of Missy Eubanks, who was fatally injured by a drunk driver in May, leaving behind her 9-year-old son Jackson. "This program is designed to assist liquor establishments with the tools they need to make sure their drunken customer gets home safely and save lives," explains Christine Brasel, Melissa Eubanks' sister.

The program challenges all Tulsa restaurants, bars and clubs to ensure their intoxicated customers arrive home safely by offering a free taxi ride paid for by the keys4cabs Foundation.

"The intention is to provide proper training to all Tulsa area licensed liquor, beer and wine retailers and establishments on how to engage in a successful keys4cabs exchange," adds foundation volunteer Tim Barraza. Missy's keys4cabs not only gives the liquor establishments another tool to help keep intoxicated customers from getting behind the wheel, but more importantly gives customers the freedom to ask for a free cab home in exchange for their key.

The keys4cabs Foundation will print coupon books and distribute them to participating retailers, local restaurants, bars and clubs. The customer can request the free ride home or the establishment can simply recognize the unsafe condition their customer is in and take control of the potential hazard by convincing customers to give up their keys for a taxi ride. A sealed envelope containing the establishment's name, address and phone number as well as their car key is given to the customer when he or she is seated in the cab. Once the exchange is complete, the employee then gives the taxi driver a Missy's keys4cabs coupon redeemable for payment from the keys4cabs foundation.

The keys4cabs foundation is funded through donations and annual fees from participating establishments. The coupons do not cost the establishment anything, Barraza says, but management and all serving employees including security personnel must attend a short discussion on how to successfully provide a Missy's keys4cabs exchange, taking the guesswork out of many situations and giving servers the knowledge needed to make quick decisions. Training will be provided by Friends of Missy's keys4cabs. Once training is complete, a location will receive a window sticker showing the patrons that this establishment cares about their clientele and is proud to be a Missy's keys4cabs establishment. An annual fee of $94.00 will be charged to all participating establishments for training and window sticker. Members fees along with donations will sustain the program for years to come.

Our mission is to save lives by reducing the number of drunk drivers on Tulsa streets. We want Tulsans to get into the mindset that taking a cab is the smart, responsible and cool choice. Budweiser is a sponsor of the program servicing member establishments with coupons and marketing the program. Arrangements have been made with local cab companies to accept the free taxi coupons. The Oklahoma Restaurant Association has agreed to support the program by encouraging their Tulsa membership to provide this service to its customers. Our mission is to save lives in Tulsa by reducing the number of drunk drivers on Tulsa streets.

If you would like to be a Missy's keys4cabs establishment please call Elizabeth at (918)695-0257 or go to keys4cabs.org for more info.

Reporter

The Mexican Cometh

October is national Hispanic Heritage month and the Hispanic Resource Center at Martin Regional Library, 2601 S. Garnett Rd., is celebrating with special guest Gustavo Arellano. Arellano is best known by Tulsans for his "¡Ask a Mexican!" column in Urban Tulsa Weekly, and he will have two speaking engagements in Tulsa: Oct. 14 from 7-8:30pm at Martin Regional Library and Oct. 15 at noon at the University of Tulsa's Champman Lecture Hall. Fans will be able purchase Gustavo Arellano's books and get them autographed at the event.

Some might see him as controversial, some might take him as a cultural relativist, and others may just see him as humorous. Any way you see it, Gustavo Arellano has made a tremendous impact on the Hispanic community.

"I love the way the Mexican shakes things up," said Sara Martinez, coordinator of the Hispanic Resource Center. "He confronts all of us with our own prejudices and makes no excuses for nadie. He provokes and makes fun, but there is solid data behind the humor. The Latino community, along with the whole community, can only benefit from this kind of attention.

"The Hispanic Resource Center offers this opportunity for a discussion of ideas and issues as the evento central of our Hispanic Heritage Month programming at Tulsa City-County Library. The Mexican will be interviewed by local Okie Latino personalities; there will be Mexican pastries and we hope to have a fun evening; there may be a taco truck in the vicinity. We will definitely open the floor up for questions from fans."

Every question in Arellano's columns comes from the readers, and he answers two questions each week. In an interview for NPR's Tell Me More, Arellano said, "The very -- the only question we ever made up was the very first question. Ever since then, every question that I've answered in the column, people have sent it to me. The only thing I ever do, I give people a funny pseudonym and I clean up the grammar from time to time.

"The way the column started was my former editor at the OC Weekly, he gave me the idea to start the column as a way to take a different perspective on the immigration war happening here on Orange County. As a reporter, I had been covering it, but both those sides, they were being so laughable, so caricatures of each other that we decided that the best way to confront that would be to do it as a parody. So what happen(ed) then, we put it out there, it was just supposed to be a joke, a parody column. But we got such an overwhelming response that we knew that we had to continue the column."

Since then, Arellano has received several awards for the now 7-year-old column -- the President's award from the L.A. Press Club, a Latino Spirit Award and an Impact Award from the National Hispanic Media Coalition. Arellano has appeared on Today, The Colbert Report and Nightline.

For more information on the event, visit tulsalibrary.org or call (918) 596-7977.