October Meeting
At our October Meeting we were given an excellent presentation by volunteer Sheonagh Jones about the work of the Great North Air Ambulance Service. This charity provides emergency medical care by helicopter – backed up by cars in bad weather and overnight. They cover North Yorkshire, Cumbria, Northumbria and recently added the Isle of Man. This is the largest and most rural area covered by any of the 21 UK Air Ambulance charities. Working with the NHS and other emergency service, plus Mountain Rescue, the GNAAS is an important part of major incident response throughout the North of England.
We saw videos of the dispatchers who are linked to the emergency services, responding to calls, sending out the helicopters and cars. We also saw their teams of pilot, pre-hospital doctor and specialist paramedic (who is also trained as a navigator and to assist the pilot). The sick and injured can be taken to one of four major trauma centres or smaller nearby hospitals according to their needs. GNAAS also operate a “flexible border” policy, providing support to the Scottish, Yorkshire and Lancashire Air Ambulance Services where appropriate.
To cover their large territory cost £9.3 million last year, to answer 2,148 calls for help. They are entirely community funded, from fund-raising events, an annual raffle, and a regular monthly subscription prize draw. They also welcome gifts in wills, from sponsored activities such as marathons, and general donations which allow the service to run. Many of their donors and volunteers are former patients they rescued. The motto for the annual raffle “Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime” accurately describes their work.
They also sell on used postage stamps, and we were able to present them with a large collection of postage stamps, accumulated over many months. We also presented Sheonagh and her colleague John with a cheque, and a tin of biscuits for the local Durham base.
Business Session
A progress report was presented on the upcoming fundraiser event with the Richmond Dales Amateur Swimming Club, a talk with supper by Olympic Swimmer Sharron Davies. Members volunteered to assist on the night with raffle, tombola, and meet-and-greet of guests. Plans are also moving forward for our International Women’s Day Exhibition next March, with members invited to nominate their Women of Richmondshire. The members also debated the resolutions being voted on at the upcoming SIGBI Conference in Edinburgh, and mandated Joint President Babs to be our voting representative.
Soroptimist Cup Presentations
Our Joint Presidents Babs and Lin recently attended two school prize giving evenings to present Soroptimist Cups for Making a Difference. Babs went to Risedale School, where she presented a Soroptimist Cup to Ellie McGee. This is the citation from the school for her:
“Ellie was a wonderfully positive asset to Risedale. Always smiling, she approached everything she did with positivity and enthusiasm and was a role model for her peers. It is a pleasure to be able to reward Ellie for her uncountable contributions to Risedale School life, and we wish her every success in her future endeavours.”
Lin’s attendance at the Richmond School presentation to two of our Sharing our Skills students was reported last month, but we now have a photo:
Rosebush for Judith
At the end of the business meeting, we were delighted to present a Soroptimist Rose bush to our stalwart member Judith Clark. This was in recognition of her becoming the new Joint President of Yorkshire Region from November. We are very proud of her enormous contribution to Soroptimism.
