At 2.00pm on Wednesday 15th April several members of the Op Shop committee and the grants subcommittee attended at the Mclaren Vale Visitors Information Centre where they met representatives of both Rural Aid and Angel Flight.
The purpose of the meeting was to donate $25,000 to each of the organisations.
Rural Aid was represented by Dorothy Crosby who provided some basic information regarding the work of the organisation. Like us, it is an organisation staffed almost entirely by volunteers who provide both financial and mental health counselling services to farmers in need.
This help is needed generally as a result of natural disasters such as fires, droughts etc but could arise from other circumstances as well.
Angel Flight was represented by Owen Crees who explained their role. The group consists of pilots who either own or have access to light planes which they can use mainly to fly patients to and from home for medical treatment. Most trips also involve somebody meeting the plane on landing and conveying the patient by car to the venue for the treatment. All involved are also volunteers.
Other flights undertaken involve brining specialist doctors to country hospitals and clinics thus making them far more readily available much more frequently.
Neither group receives any government funding and reply principally on donations from groups such as us, philanthropic organisations as well as individuals.
Future similar donations are being planned for other organisations. These will be announced as and when they occur.
We regard it as a great privilege to be able to provide assistance such as this to such groups. Their assistance in turn flows down to members of the community which, after all, is where the funds we raise come from initially.
