You may see people from St John out in the streets next week April 9 – 16 shaking their buckers as part of the annual Heart Of Gold street appeal to raise money for command units and specialist specialist equipment to be used when responding to major emergencies.
I don’t think you need me to tell you how important St Johns is to our nation, they run all our ambulance services and are a charity. Which means they rely on donations and grants to help treat nearly half a million people each year.
I never really knew that St John relied on donations until having to use the service myself when I was a teenager. Nothing major, but I’m so glad we do have these people at the end of a phone call when need be.
When we found out we were having twins the Multiple Birth Club recommended we join the supporter scheme. You donate $80 to cover your entire family for any emergency services through St John you may need. Which was something that could be a reality with a high risk pregnancy. Since having two rambunctious boys it’s something we continue to do every year. It’s nice knowing it’s there is need be but for us we are just glad to be supporting St John and something I reccomend you look into doing. Also if you would like to support St John during annual Heart of Gold appeal week, any little amount helps. Check out the supporter scheme here or donate here.
ST JOHN FACTS:
- St John ambulances travel over 19 Million km’s each year.
- Our community and commercial programmes range from first aid training, health shuttle services, ASB St John in Schools, Friends of the Emergency Department, Caring Caller telephone service, monitored medical alarms, Outreach Therapy Pets and a St John Youth Programme
- St John is made up of a mix of full-time paid employees and volunteer staff
- For the third year in a row St John was voted New Zealand’s Most Trusted Charity in the Readers Digest Most Trusted Brands Awards 2016
- It costs $180,000 for a new command unit