Retained firefighters at Driffield took a quick break from their drill night to welcome two special guests to their Bridlington Road station earlier this evening,
Kevin Biles, Sales Manager from the Fire Fighters Charity, travelled 235 miles from Basingstoke to present a hamper to the station in recognition of their third placed finish in a UK wide clothes recycling competition. He was joined by Helen May of Beaumonts Recycling to hand over the award to Watch Managers Pat Naylor and Gary Backhouse and their crews.
[Pictured front from left to right are WM Gary Backhouse, Kevin Biles, Helen May and WM Pat Naylor]
Driffield Fire Station collected an amazing 1.4 tonnes of unwanted clothing during January 2016 which placed them third amongst 603 fire stations nationwide. This was collected by Beaumonts and will go to reclothing projects mainly in Ukraine. Egremont Fire Station in Cumbria were crowned national champions collecting 7.7 tonnes of recycled clothing and textiles which raised £1,700 during the month, whilst the runners up were Oundle Fire Station in Northamptonshire who managed an impressive 1.9 tonnes. All three are retained stations served by on-call firefighters who outshone many wholetime crews across the country.
Kevin was delighted with the efforts of Driffield and all the other stations which took part:
‘In total more than 160 tonnes of clothing was collected from all fire stations during January 2016, redirecting it away from landfill sites. Compared to just 131 tonnes in the same month last year, the addition of collections from schools and community sites helped The Fire Fighters Charity raise more than £39,000. This is a fantastic achievement – thank you to everyone who took part.’
Driffield’s achievement was particularly pleasing for Judith Oliver, Yorkshire and Humberside’s regional fundraiser for The Fire Fighters Charity:
‘It is great to have one of our stations recognised for this outstanding fundraising effort. Driffield Fire Station provide us with such wonderful support to help us provide assistance for both retired and serving firefighters. To come third out of over 600 stations nationally is testament to WM Pat Naylor and his crews for all their hard work’.
As if their work with local schools and sense of community spirit wasn’t enough, the crews have decided to donate the hamper to Kings Mill Special School in the town to use as a prize or simply to raise much needed funds. Most of the pupils have severe or profound learning difficulties and the school also caters for children with autism, epilepsy, physical disabilities, sensory impairment and challenging behaviour.
It costs around £9 million per year to meet the needs of The Fire Fighters Charity’s beneficiaries and the Charity is reliant on donations and fundraising from the general public and the fire and rescue community to achieve this figure.
In 2014/15 the Charity helped 4,967 individuals, its helpline received 8,504 calls while 2,345 beneficiaries completed its rehabilitation programme and 2,045 beneficiaries came to one of its three centres for a recuperation break.
For further information:
Contact Kevin Biles on 07825 176323 or email kbiles@firefighterscharity.org.uk