Newport Parish Council have presented a cheque for £600 to WightSAR, the Island’s volunteer search and rescue team.
At a recent meeting, two members of the WightSAR team told Newport Parish Council that the organisations primary responsibility is to save life and consequently they are commonly activated and tasked during the first few vital hours of a high risk missing person report.
The Parish Council was shown an example of an insulated jacket used by the volunteers, which come with a price tag of £150 each. It was agreed by Councillors to donate £600 to fund four jackets.
The Chairman of the Parish Council, Cllr Julie Jones-Evans, presented the cheque to the WightSAR Chairman Dean Terrett at one of their training sessions. Jones-Evans was accompanied by the Parish vice chairman Cllr Lois Prior, who is training to be a volunteer with WightSAR.
Cllr Jones-Evans said:
“The councillors were very impressed by the professionalism of the volunteer group and the excellent work that they carry out in assisting the main emergency services.
“We were pleased to donate funds towards the jackets which are essential equipment items for the volunteers”.
WightSAR is a charitable organisation that does not receive any government or public funding. The organisation provides properly trained and equipped volunteers to assist official agencies in searching for missing vulnerable people. This includes the elderly, children and those deemed a risk to themselves.
In 2014 WightSAR deployed 15 times to 10 separate incidents and also had another additional 3 standby requests that never materialized to a call out.
Photographed: Cllr Julie Jones Evans presenting the donation cheque to WightSAR Chairman Dean Terrett and the team
