University Helps County Air Ambulances Turn Bicycles into Rotor Blades
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| Air Ambulance |
Students and staff at the University of Warwick have raised over £1,000 for the County Air Ambulance by holding a sale of bikes abandoned by overseas students.
Every year scores of bikes are abandoned by students – particularly by those returning overseas. This year university staff and students decided to collect the abandoned bikes from around the university campus. They were stored for six months before the sale, giving people the opportunity to reclaim their property. Promotion of the event included adverts on the web page for the University and word of mouth. On the day over sixty bikes were sold to students and staff in sealed bids.
One of the three Bond helicopters operated by the County Air Ambulance is to drop into the University during a training flight at 12 midday on Saturday 22nd November to collect the cheque. Paul Weir, Fundraising Development Manager at the County Air Ambulance will accepted the cheque for the sum from Laurence Farmed, Security Officer, at the University.
Paul Weir, Fundraising Development Manager at County Air Ambulance, commented “At County Air Ambulance we rely entirely on charitable donations. This type of fundraising is invaluable to our continued operations across the whole of the West Midlands region including Warwickshire.
We have completed over 180 missions in Warwickshire so far this year and we are very appreciative of the support the University of Warwick have shown us and look forward to working together in the future.”
The County Air Ambulance serves an area of 8,000 square miles and a population of 7.8 million in the West Midlands, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Warwickshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Gloucestershire and Powys. It operates from its bases at the East Midlands Airport, RAF Cosford, near Wolverhampton and Strensham North Services on the M5. The cost of maintaining current level of operations stands at £2.4 million, for which the County Air Ambulance relies entirely on the general public for voluntary donations.