DONATION BOOSTS MARTINBOROUGH AMBULANCE SERVICE

The Martinborough district’s ambulance service is being upgraded thanks to a donation from the Toast Martinborough wine and food festival.

The festival organisers have donated $5,000 to the service, which is managed through a partnership between St John and the Martinborough District Ambulance Trust.

“We’re very proud to acknowledge and support the community that hosts our festival,” says Rachael Fletcher, Toast Martinborough’s General Manager. “We also understand the importance of the local ambulance service, which provides a vital ‘first response’ for the community at night.”

Murray Pike, Team Manager – Wairarapa for the St John Central Region, says the donation has come at a great time for the service.

“As the first response team our role is to provide immediate – and often life-saving – care, usually until a hospital-based ambulance arrives to take the patient to hospital,” he says. “This donation will enable us to upgrade our equipment to more modern standards, which is great for our ambulance volunteers and of course for the patients themselves.”

Mr Pike stresses that the ambulance service is a community partnership. “The Trust owns the vehicle, while St John covers the costs of day-to-day upkeep and provides training for the ambulance crews,” he says. “It’s a good relationship; we’re very pleased to work with the community to provide the service it needs.”

David Kershaw, Chairman of the Martinborough District Ambulance Trust, says the partnership is working well. “The Martinborough district covers a very large area, so it’s vital to have a local ambulance service that can reach ill and injured people quickly,” he says.

“We couldn’t provide this service without St John and the financial help we both get from our generous sponsors and donors in the Wairarapa community. Our thanks go to Toast Martinborough; this money is just what we need.”

Toast Martinborough makes a significant contribution to the Wairarapa region, with 10,000 festival-goers every year injecting more than $2.5 million into the local economy. Much of this is spent outside the festival itself, on accommodation, food, beverages and entertainment. The 2013 festival will take place on Sunday 17 November.

For more information, contact:
Rachael Fletcher, Toast Martinborough General Manager 021 586 278