Phillips Search and Rescue Helicopter personnel Graeme Spiers and Stuart Davies are grateful recipients of a cheque for $18,400 from Woodville Lions President Warren Jones.
Phillips Search and Rescue Helicopter personnel Graeme Spiers and Stuart Davies are grateful recipients of a cheque for $18,400 from Woodville Lions President Warren Jones.
Pic 2: BTG010321WL2 Caption: Palmerston North Phillips Search and Rescue Base Manager Graeme Spiers expresses his gratitude for over $500,000 over 28 years from Woodville Lions.
Pic 3: BTG010321WL3 Caption: The winner of the Suzuki GSX 150 bike is announced by President Warren Jones with Senior Constable Shane Brown, Phil Turnbull of Courtesy Motorcycles and raffle organiser Ron Mabey.
Pic 4: BTG010321WL4 Caption: Phil Turnbull discusses the type of bike the winner wanted.
Pic 5: BTG010321WL5 Caption: Selling sausages and raffle tickets at the Mad Hatters Day in November reminds people of the hard work raising this money involves.
Pic 6: BTG010321WL6 Caption: The Coast to Coast motorcycles which rolled into town to join the Christmas Parade in December.
At its regular meeting, Monday, February 22, Woodville Lions presented to the Palmerston North Phillips Search and Rescue Helicopter Service a cheque for $18,400 – the proceeds of its annual Coast to Coast Motorcycle ride in December 2020.
President Warren Jones said it was with some humility that he was making the presentation after what is such an iconic event known by people throughout New Zealand.
It is the 28th running of the campaign, which absorbs much of the Lion's year and has raised more than $500,000 in the time. President Jones said "everyone associated with Woodville Lions is enmeshed in this long-standing service to the rescue helicopter" and he went on to thank all those businesses and organisations that make it possible.
Selling sausages and raffle tickets at the Mad Hatters Day in November reminds people of the hard work raising this money involves.
In particular, he thanked Phil Turnbull of Courtesy Motorcycles which supplies the bike raffled over several months. He said being associated with Courtesy Motorcycles enhanced the Lions brand just as being associated with the Coast To Coast enhanced Phil's business.
An auction of items donated by businesses for the Coast To Coast raised $960, which was added the total before presentation.
President Warren had the pleasure of telling the winner of the bike in Palmerston North by phone with the words "I'm practically sitting on your new bike" to which she replied she "was astonished."
Palmerston North Phillips Search and Rescue Base Manager Graeme Spiers expressed his gratitude for 28 years of interaction with Woodville Lions saying it was all the more important to receive donations as the cost per year to run the service from Palmerston North was $3.9 million, up from $2.8 million two years ago because the service had its own paramedics, which saves so much time and lives.
He used as an example a rider in the recent Woodville Motocross who crashed, receiving spinal injuries and is recovering thanks to a quick ride to Christchurch Hospital.
The service attended 414 missions in 2020, each one costing $9500.
Co-incidentally, the rescue helicopter flew over the racecourse on a mission as he spoke.
