Volunteers for the Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS) have been praised for their efforts after the latest stats showed they spent more than 755 hours helping the charity last year.
GNAAS currently have over 100 regular volunteers as part of their ‘ground crew’, who dedicate their spare time representing the charity. Whether it’s delivering presentations to the public, manning stalls at summer shows, or emptying collection boxes, they help in numerous ways to support the cause.
Sophie Snowdon, fundraising lead at GNAAS, said: “Since March we’ve been using a volunteer management app which allows us to easily track the number of hours worked by our volunteers. The total for last year was 45,340 minutes, and this includes volunteers helping out at events such as our annual charity balls in the North East and Cumbria, bucket collections, community talks, stalls, and also admin at our HQ, such as helping with our annual raffle.
“We also have a wonderful team of volunteers who empty our collection tins, which are often on display in shops, pubs and workplaces across the region. Currently we are unable to track the hours for this activity, which means our volunteers have actually exceeded the 755 hours we have on record.”
The charity is currently seeking to expand their team of volunteers, and are recruiting for people to help empty their collection tins in the North East, specifically in Middlesbrough, Redcar, Saltburn and Sunderland.
In Cumbria they are also looking for volunteers to help out at stalls and bucket collections, amongst other things.
Sophie said: “Our volunteers make a huge contribution to the work we do, and help us reach several communities within the 8,000 square miles that our critical care team operate in.
“We really appreciate everyone who has volunteered their time with GNAAS over the years, whether as a regular volunteer, or those who spared a few hours on a one-off basis.
“At the moment we’re looking to recruit further volunteers in the North East and Cumbria, so if anyone is interested in volunteering some of their time to help our cause, we would urge them to get in touch either online or over the phone.”
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