WILTSHIRE Air Ambulance successfully raised £20,000 in just three days recently as the charity continues to raise money towards its new base near Melksham.
The new Flight Room is planned for the charity’s proposed new airbase on land at Outmarsh Farm, Semington, near Melksham, and will be where the pilots and paramedics co-ordinate their operational activities.
The £20,000 needed for the Flight Room was raised online at the Big Give Christmas Challenge from 12pm on Tuesday 29th November to 12pm on Friday 2nd December.
During the 72 hour period, Wiltshire Air Ambulance (WAA) staff and aircrew posted about the variety of work they do on the charity’s social media channels, resulting in more than 38,000 accounts reached on Twitter and a reach of over 35,000 on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Cheryl Johnson, head of capital appeal at WAA said, “The response to our Big Give Christmas Challenge campaign was tremendous and we’d like to thank everyone who donated, as well as our pledgers Jeffrey Thomas, chairman of Hartham Park, and The Andrew Smiley Charitable Trust and match-funders, Candis. We had support from individuals, community groups and businesses.
“The £20,000 raised will ensure that the Flight Room at our proposed new base will be equipped to the highest standards for our aircrew. The room will be at the heart of our new home and will be fitted out with state-of-the-art flight planning and mapping equipment to ensure we can still reach any part of Wiltshire within 11 minutes.
“It will enable our pilots and paramedics to have the specialist equipment and space they need to plan and prepare for each mission safely and effectively.
“There was substantial engagement by the public on our social media channels during the campaign, overseen by Natalie Luckham of Naturally Social, and we found that using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn was a great way to inform people about the variety of work that goes on by the aircrew and the charity team.”
A total of £21,590 was raised during the campaign and the excess raised above £20,000 will go to the charity’s Airbase Appeal fund.
If the charity’s detailed planning application for the Outmarsh Farm site is granted it anticipates launching the Airbase Appeal across the county in January 2017.
Full details will be on the website www.wiltshireairambulance.co.uk
