May 20, 2019
The proceeds of last summer’s Hibiscus Rodders Beach Festival – a record breaking $60,000 – was handed over to Westpac Rescue Helicopter Trust last month.
Festival coordinator Sharon Morris, club president Shane Bennett and other members drove their hot rods to the helicopter base in Auckland to present the cheque. Accepting the money, the Trust’s general manager of marketing and fundraising, John Hooper, thanked the club and said the amount puts it on top of the list of donors that raise money from community events. “You’re our number one community donor now,” he said.
The Rescue Helicopter recently bought two new state of the art aircraft, which cost $15 million each. The new helicopters, AW69 machines from Italy, are the first of their kind in NZ. They have more space for crew to work on the patients. Response time is about 8 minutes from emergency call to take-off. The first of the new helicopters was expected to be operational this month, with the second in about July. Hibiscus Rodders Club will have its logo on the side of one of the new helicopters.
Hibiscus Matters was a proud sponsor of the Hibiscus Rodders Beach Festival.
