Kate Dawson, of Altrusa Queenstown, with some of the
members of the Arrowtown Volunteer Fire Brigade. Pictured,
back, from left, are Glen Parnell, John Hillock, Terry
Youngman, Anton O'connell, Wayne Patterson, Gordy Gibb,
Michael Scott, Greg Piper, Leroy Mullings, Murray Forward
and Mark Woodham. Front, from left, Jim Shaw, Shawn Coombe,
Rob Andrews, Chris Tate and Alan Harrison.
Nine of the 22 Arrowtown Volunteer Fire Brigade members
have now been trained in co-response, partly thanks to a
donation from Altrusa Queenstown.
Altrusa, an international organisation of service clubs which
focus on local needs, provides volunteers with an opportunity
to make a difference in the community, professional growth
and fun and friendship.
Altrusa made a $2500 donation to the Arrowtown co-response
team.
Altrusa Queenstown spokeswoman Kate Dawson said the
Queenstown club had been providing service to the community
for the past 27 years through fundraisers and community
service projects.
"In the past year, the club has held a fashion parade,
organised a charity golf tournament, given books to the
babies born in September, given a scholarship to Wakatipu
High School, given donations to the local Buddy programme,
catered for local functions, joined in the Walk for Life at
Cromwell [and] provided marshalls for the Lake Hayes Women's
Triathlon."
When it came time to decide who would be next to benefit from
an Altrusa donation, the Arrowtown Fire Brigade's co-response
unit was an easy choice, Mrs Dawson said.
"We like to spread the money around the area and Arrowtown
always supports us . . . we wanted to give something back out
here."
Volunteer firefighter Leroy Mullings said the co-response
unit was designed to help St John by getting to the scene of
an accident or medical call as quickly as possible and being
trained to start working on a patient immediately.
Firefighter Mark Woodham said nine of the brigade's members
had gone through the pre-hospital emergency care course,
which cost $700 each, funded by the brigade.
The donation from Altrusa went towards those costs.
Mr Woodham said the Arrowtown brigade's area covered from
halfway down the Kawarau Gorge and the top of the Crown Range
zig-zag, to Lake Hayes Estate on State Highway 6 and the
Arrowtown side of Coronet Peak.
Last year, the brigade attended 118 callouts. Sixty of those
callouts were to medical incidents.
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