Mini ambos a big fundraiser

Whangarei St John Ambulance officer Becky Buchanan tries her hand at making an ambulance out of building blocks. The toys are being sold for $15 to raise money to buy a full-sized ambulance for Northland. Photo / John Stone

Mini ambulances are rolling out the doors to raise money for the bigger versions on the roads across Northland.

In a new fundraising initiative toy ambulances consisting of 106 blocks are being sold for $15 to buy new fully equipped ambulances.

There are currently 34 full sized ambulances in use across Northland and over the last 12 months there have been 20,000 callouts for St John staff - about 54 a day on average.

St John acting district operations manager Mark Going said while the cost of purchasing a new vehicle was high, it was important to replace vehicles as maintenance costs became quiet restrictive.

Mr Going said St John in Northland was fortunate enough to receive $90,000 of funding from the Northland Regional Council emergency services fund but continued fundraising, donations and bequests were required to reach their goal.

"It's important for an organisation like ours to have reliable vehicles to respond in," he said.

"Ensuring it happens comes at quite a hefty price with vehicles costing up to $200,000 fully equipped."

He said about 6000 of the mini ambos had been sold throughout New Zealand with sales in Northland contributing to the tally.

The toy ambulances are the latest initiative between ASB and St John and are available at any ASB branch or from the Whangarei Ambulance station on Western Hills Drive.