"Our volunteers sort, tag and price clothing ready for the shop, and carry out general shop duties."
St John Hawke's Bay area committee chairman Tony Ludlow says St John is excited to be partnering with Threads Community Clothing Store.
"This opportunity will help us continue to fund important health initiatives that provide care and build resilience in our communities."
In addition to providing emergency ambulance services in Hawke's Bay and the rest of New Zealand, St John offers a range of products and services including first aid training, mental health first aid training, medical alarms, and first aid supplies. St John also provides a range of charitable community health services which are designed to improve the health and wellbeing of communities around the country and enable people to live strong, independent lives for longer. These include the St John Youth programme, ASB St John in Schools, Health Shuttles, Friends of the Emergency Department, Therapy Pets and Caring Callers.
St John Youth programmes help young New Zealanders to develop first aid, leadership, and life skills. These include Penguins, aged 6 to 8 and Cadets aged 8 to 18.
"The ASB St John in Schools programme takes our people into schools across New Zealand, training pre-school, primary and intermediate school-aged children to be clever little lifesavers. Our Friends of the Emergency Department (FED) and Hospital Friends volunteers provide comfort and support to patients and their families in hospital emergency departments, as well as other departments and smaller hospitals."
The St John Health Shuttle is a koha-based community service that transports people to and from vital health-related appointments that they otherwise cannot get to. Caring Caller is a free telephone friendship service that St John provides for people who live alone or feel a bit lonely. Volunteers phone clients regularly to check that everything is okay.
"St John has almost 9000 wonderful volunteers throughout New Zealand and we are always on the lookout for more volunteers – from our youth leaders to health shuttle drivers. It's a great organisation to be part of and our volunteers regularly tell us they love what they do," Tony says.
St John fundraising efforts go towards the running of these community services.
"Fundraising activity spans from community donations, regular giving, bequests, grants, and commercial partnerships such as the one with Threads."
St John Hawke's Bay territory manager Brendon Hutchinson says St John's emergency ambulance service is funded by around 80 per cent through contracts with the Ministry of Health and the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC), with the balance made up from ambulance part-charges, third-party contracts and fundraising.
"St John is grateful to Threads for their interest in partnering with us. Their support will see some funding go towards building our new ambulance station in Hawke's Bay, which will provide our ambulance officers with a modern, purpose-built facility to ensure we can meet the long-term needs of the community. The new building will also enable St John to cater for different activities and opportunities available to the community."
The new station is being built on Tait Dr in Napier and is expected to be completed by mid-2022.