Media Release

Western riders and Women’s Institute members help fill rescue helicopter’s saddlebags

14 April 2009

A combined fundraising effort by members of the Women’s Institute and the Buller Western Riding Club has raised $1,145 to support the Solid Energy Rescue Helicopter.

Institute president, Emma Menzies, and secretary, Rose Carruthers, met up with Riding Club secretary, Pip Hateley, in Westport last week to present a big cheque to Jan Coll, a trustee of the Canterbury West Coast Air Rescue Trust.

Ms Menzies says the idea came from the riding club, whose members offered to do a ride to raise money for the institute, whose members then decided to support the idea but also to donate any funds to the local rescue helicopter service.  Institute members from Waimangaroa, Hector and Westport rounded up friends, relatives and neighbours to secure sponsorship for seven of the club’s riders who mounted up in Charleston on Saturday, 7 March, and completed their ride to Westport in about four hours.  Institute members put on a cuppa and sausage sizzle at the end of the trek.

For every dollar it costs to operate the rescue helicopter, payments from ACC and health boards cover about 40 cents.  The other 60 cents must be raised locally, from donations and sponsorships from companies like Solid Energy.  May is Rescue Helicopter Awareness Month.