 me on Think Tech Hawaii. I am Shayna Park, your host for Money Talks. My guest today is Amphi Champadon. Welcome to the show, Amphi. Hi, Shayna. Thank you for inviting me. Hi. Thank you for being on the show again. It's great to have you back. Please tell us more about yourself. So, I am actually a resident and lifer of Hawaii. I've been here all my life. grew up in Kaligi, went to Kalani High School, attended UH, and then been there for about 10 years. I'm currently an attorney with a state planning group here in Honolulu, where we help families secure their assets and properly protect their estate. That's awesome. So, you've been here all your life and you've moved into a career of finance. How do you like being an estate planning lawyer? I wouldn't say so much finance. I look at it as when we look at helping families secure their wealth, their financial foundation. Part of that is always going to be protection. And where I come in in my role as an estate attorney is to assure that families do properly protect the assets and the things that they've gathered through their work and their efforts and make sure that it goes to the people and their families. Yes. And I like what you said about protecting assets because people work so hard to purchase things or get assets to begin with and covering all realms of everything is to protect it. But it's December right now and we're moving into the holiday season. And I know we're here to discuss a very important cause. So, you're the vice president of Safe Ride Hawaii. Could you please share more about what Safe Ride Hawaii is? So, Safe Ride Hawaii is a non-profit that I was a co-founder of with Shonda Park. If that name sounds familiar, that is Shaina's mom. And so, our non-profit, our goal is to eliminate any and all fatalities due to intoxicated driving. So, we take a three-prong approach to addressing this issue of intoxicated driving. Our primary work is a direct service where we take individuals that have been drinking or is under the influence, them and their car home safely. And in addition to that, we also provide education and awareness to the communities as well as supporting families that have lost a loved one due to an intoxicated driver. That is a really great organization that you guys have that's going on. I wanted to ask you what sets you guys apart from all the other companies like Uber and Lyft, the cab, what is so different with Safe Ride Hawaii? I don't kind of see us as being separate or apart from. I really see us as another option. It's another opportunity for individuals to be responsible. I think it's important that people know that they have options, whether it's going to be a designated driver, rideshares with Uber and Lyft, or the taxi service. And now in the event that you even contemplate or have that conversation in your head, should you have driven somewhere and not intended on drinking and then end up drinking as you are weighing your options, that we now say there is another choice, a responsible choice, and that choice is Safe Ride. And what we do is, when you talk about bottom line in businesses, we don't have a bottom line. Our bottom line is really the safety of the community. And one less person taking that risk by driving intoxicated is one less person left to worry about for themselves, for the people around them, the community, their families, and the victims' families. So there's a rule for all of us. We just offer something that says that there cannot be any excuses now why you would ever take that risk of drinking and driving. Yes. And I wanted you to explain how did Safe Ride hold what you start? So, well, we lost our daughter three years ago to a drunk driver, and she was on her way to the Honolulu city lights at that time because of COVID, they weren't having it at Honolulu Halle. Instead, they were having it at the Aloha stadium. The way it was set up was that there was only one way, which is lot one, to go into the stadium to go to the city lights. And to do that, it required you to do a U-turn at one of the intersections, and Azalea had gone out to push the buttons to help make the lights change. She was in the crosswalk, and as she was going back to the car, she was hit and killed by a drunk driver. It's been tough. I don't think it will ever change. We've met many families that are going through this season, whether this is their first year that they've lost their loved ones, or this is their 30th year. We, alongside them, really struggle as a family. And it's just something I don't think any we wish would want to have happen to any more families. And so, when this tragedy happened for our family, we were thinking that it cannot be in vain, like, what can we do to really honor Azalea, and leave that legacy in her name, and we, you know, did our research and thought that this would be something that can directly impact the community. So, I don't know if you know, you know, SafeRide is not like a novel program, you know, something that we came up. This is something that has been used as a business as a service across the world, more specifically, when you look at the Asian countries, where they actually have similar, like, SafeRide, and they've been in operations for years and very successful. So, I think it's important for us to discuss, you know, why. Why SafeRide, Hawaii, and why SafeRide, Hawaii is so important to our community. So, you know, for me, at least, I know what it's like to go out and intend to not drink, and just go and enjoy, you know, my friend's company, but sometimes, you know, it could happen where you end up having a few, and I like how you had mentioned, too, to eliminate any reason to get behind the wheel after, you know, drinking any amount of alcohol. So, I like that there's options. And, you know, I like that for Hawaii, too, there's Uber and Lyft is so it's so known and popular, but I feel like SafeRide, Hawaii has yet to be spread, right? And it's a discussion that, you know, we need to talk about more often and why it's so important. Do you want to chime in on why you think SafeRide, Hawaii is important to our community? For what you just shared, I mean, this is, it's unacceptable, it's unexcusable, it's 100% preventable, and there should be no more families that lose a loved one, okay, or suffer the tragedies that come with someone being irresponsible and making that choice to drink and drive. I just want to share, you know, for us at SafeRide, Hawaii, we, we're not telling people not to go and celebrate. By all means, you know, please continue the great celebrations, you know, the graduation parties, the weddings, the luels, all those things are wonderful. We participate in those activities and events as well. It's just now being more cognizant and mindful that to be cool, to go behind the wheel is unacceptable. That's the culture we were wanting to change. You know, and statistically, the numbers have not changed in terms of what happens and how many people are affected. If I told you two in three people, it will be involved in a drunk driving crash in their lifetime, whether or not they are the recipients, meaning the victims of, whether a car got struck, or they're the ones that were intoxicated. I mean, think about that, Sheena, two out of every three person that is on the road is going to be affected by drunk driving. And then now, if I tell you every 40, it was 50 something minutes, every 51 minutes, I think the last statistic that I heard for this year, it was 47 or 48, which is not good. That somebody dies from a drunk driver. And it's not just that individual or the immediate family. You're talking about their extended family, you're talking about their circle of friends, talking about the communities, you're talking to people that are doctors, lawyers, nurses. I mean, in every profession, you know, you're talking about a sister, a daughter, and it's just inexcusable. And we even, you know, the last thing that you want to think about is the economic cost. If you had a DUI, it will cost you, minimally, at least $10,000 for your first offense, 10 to $25,000 for your first offense. And that's not even, we're just putting a hard number on just that. I would say the initial first year to do whatever needs to be done, your insurance premiums will go up 20 to 25% for the next 10 years. Imagine that. And then each and every single time you talk about, you're not able to quantify this is because as you now go and look for a job or career, further your education, whatever else, that will always be on your record. So you can, you know, kind of sense feeling like it's senseless, you know, bottom height, it's so simple. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it's great that you mentioned to the cost of, you know, a DUI because, and I love how you mentioned earlier too about celebrating responsibly, especially with the holiday seasons coming up. A lot more accidents happened during this time, which is very unfortunate and very sad with Azalea, which is my sister, you know, she had passed away a few days before Christmas. And it's just, it's a really rough time of the year when it should be a time of joy and celebration, you know, and the cost of someone getting behind a wheel, you know, drunk cost my sister's life. Now, I like how you brought up the monetary cost of a DUI because if you Uber or Lyft or even caught the bus, it would be significantly cheaper than getting behind a wheel trunk and, you know, getting a DUI and the cost of, you know, risking your life or someone else's life. I think that's a very important realization for people to have, especially here in Hawaii because or anywhere in the world, but everyone knows someone. And I'm almost certain, you know, before Azalea had passed, Amphi, did you know someone who had, you know, got involved with a drinking and driving incident? I'm sure you have. I know I have. Oh, definitely. Yeah. So it's actually really common and it's really sad. And I feel like it's our mission and it's a great cause to talk about why, you know, it's important to plan ahead. And you're right with we're not telling anyone drinking is bad, you know, please celebrate. Celebrate as much as you want. I know New York is such a big thing to Hawaii of celebrating big, but like we need to put a big emphasis on celebrating responsibly. And we don't want it to be where your family and I'm speaking to everyone that has not had, um, you know, personal story in this tragedy, you know, go through what our family has gone through and the families that we've met at our vigils, at our events that share about. I know I mentioned this earlier, some as raw as in the last couple months where they lost loved ones to those that are still grieving like 30, 40 years later. If that's not enough for you to think about this, because even though when you said, Shayna, you know about planning, what we do is in the event that you did not plan, that's where we come in and offer that the service that we're offering. And even if you plan to be the DD and you see all your friends having so much fun and then, oops, you join them, there is an option, there is an option and that option is safe ride. So could you go into the cost of how much it costs to order a safe ride or what is the price in order to get a ride with you folks? So safe ride, Hawaii, we currently charge $2 a minute to take the individual and their car home. And the proceeds from this goes to one, reimburse our drivers and second, you know, to support the community and the families that have lost loved ones. And none of this goals, well, again, our bottom line is the safety of the community. So and we want to be at a point financially to be able to offer this to, you know, the entire state. We are working with partners, two other safe ride programs in Frederick, Maryland and Atlanta, Georgia. The goal for us is to create an association where now every community, any grassroot community that wants to have a safe ride in there, running would be able to do it. We would be able to provide them with the blueprints, the manuals, everything that they would need to be successful. And the goal is to connect all the dots, all the cities from Honolulu, Hawaii, all the way to the east coast of Frederick's, Maryland and Atlanta, Georgia and in between have all these communities and cities with their own safe ride programs as nonprofits with a bottom line that just says safer communities. There's way too much tragedies. Even one more is not like that's just unfathomable about the cost. Yes. And, you know, drinking and driving is 100% preventable. I think that is our biggest reason why, you know, at least for myself, I try to stress this topic so much. It's 100% preventable. So, Amphi, I know that you have a lot of events that come up with Safe Ride Hawaii and I wanted you to share about this upcoming event that happens annually. Could you please share more about that? So, we do have a celebration for Azalea at her memorial where she was struck and killed by the drunk driver. That's our visual for her as well as bringing an awareness to the communities about not drinking and driving. And that's going to be Saturday, the last few that I just had. This is going to be this coming Saturday and from 4 o'clock to 5.30. So, you are all welcome to join us. You know, you talk about partnerships and collaboration. I just want to share, Shayna, part of our work is to bring awareness. We are looking for community partners. We've been connecting with many programs, many event coordinators, festivals throughout Oahu. You know, most recently, we were very fortunate to be able to partner with the University of Hawaii Athletics and participate at the UH Football home games. To me, that was a great start to engage with, to have an event where you have, you know, 10,000, whatever people and where alcohol is served and now being able to be available to provide that service. I think that's wonderful. I think that's a great partnership and it speaks volumes to these entities, these event coordinators, these festivals about their commitment to ensuring that they have an additional option to, and it also says that there is a commitment to keeping the community safer as well. Yeah. So, going back to the event that happens annually, I found the flyer. So, it is December 23rd. It's going to be a Saturday. Starts at 4 o'clock and ends at 5.30. So, we, like you had mentioned, and like I just explained to, we do this annually in honor of my sister to spread awareness. And going back to the UH game, I think this was such a great event to be at. And it's just really, especially for Hawaii, the newest travels fast word of mouth and by seeing a bunch of, you know, the logos everywhere. So, with the hundreds of fans that show up to the UH game and them, you know, passing by the Safe Ride Hawaii 10, you know, I really feel like Safe Ride Hawaii is getting out there and it will be known to everyone very soon. And what I want us to be known for is our mission and our vision. And our vision is that there will be no more families that lose a loved one because of an intoxicated driver. And that's what I want our Safe Ride logo and brand to be. And it's a reminder that, hey, I go back to celebrate, celebrate passionately, celebrate like how we do it here in Hawaii. And, you know, you have that responsibility as well. Yes. And I know, going back to events too, that you had educated our community driver, driver's ed class. Could you share about that as well, please? That's another space that we really want to be involved with or more involved with. We've had opportunities to share, you know, about intoxicated driving and its impact on families. And we bring, you know, more, what is the word for it? I mean, it's, we're passionate about this work that we do. But being able to go and share with young people, about teenagers that are learning how to drive or first-time drivers about the importance of this is just phenomenal. And what they take back to their families and their parents. And, you know, you can just kind of see how the circle of influence gets bigger and bigger and we had feedback actually from, they are actually one of my partners, business partners, and one of the owners came back and said, you know, my son was talking about and safe ride. And he so happened was in one of the driver's ed classes. And he was telling her about our story and his commitment to it, which is amazing, right? For a 17-year-old and that came back to us. And that was the point. The point was how can we educate more people? How can we be more awareness in doing so? I think this is where we will change that culture that says this is not acceptable. It's not cool. You know, get on. No, and I what I see safe ride Hawaii as and what is is that we're really for the community. You know, we want to educate. We want to be there to provide our services. We want to eliminate any excuse for a person to get behind a wheel under the influence. And, you know, to wrap everything up for today, you know, thank you so much again for being on AFI to talk about this important cause. And we're going to say it for like the third time. But this season coming up is a season to celebrate and to be surrounded by the people you love and care about the most. And this is a time to celebrate responsibly, you know, with all the facilities that happen. It's just important to remember the cost of all the different options that there are out there, whether it's Uber, Lyft, Safe Ride Hawaii, the cab, getting a, you know, designated driver in advance and the cost of a DIY or the cost of your life or someone else's life. It's important to think about this in advance and especially during this time of celebration and love. Do you want to share anything last minute thoughts? That was perfect. Thank you. Thank you so much. Happy holidays. Happy holidays, everyone. I hope to see you all at the next episode of Money Talks. I'm Shayna Park, a Gen Z-inspired lives of liberties. Thank you.