Since our first rescue of 32 people in 1970, the demand for our specialist air ambulance services has grown significantly in the last 50 years. We now reach more than 2000 individuals each year, across Northland, Auckland, the Hauraki Gulf and the Coromandel.
While this is a free service, each mission costs approximately $20,000 and we heavily rely on fundraising from our communities to enable us to provide emergency air ambulance services — 24-7 day or night, 365 days of the year.
Even if you or your whānau may never require our service, there will always be someone who does. Every mission is about a person in crisis and the loved ones waiting for help to arrive. From medical emergencies and accidents, to rescues at sea and disaster response, our pilots, paramedics, and engineers respond with skill, urgency and compassion.
Every donation, big or small, helps keep our helicopters flying 24/7 day or night, 365 days of the year — saving lives across the communities we serve.
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NORTHERN RESCUE
Rodders Beach Festival is proud to support the Auckland Westpac Rescue Helicopter charity – an essential service that anyone in the Greater Auckland community may need anywhere and at any time. In the Greater Auckland North Region (formerly Rodney District) alone the service is tasked to an average of 141 missions a year.
The Auckland Westpac Rescue Helicopter service began in 1970. It is thought to be the first civilian aero-medical operation of its kind in the world. Today, it operates three fully dedicated Auckland & Coromandel Westpac Rescue Helicopters and crews, and a Rapid Response Vehicle as well.
Flight crews consist of highly skilled and experienced Pilots, Air Crew Officers and Critical Care Paramedics. Westpac Rescue Auckland is also the first civilian helicopter service in New Zealand to fly with Pre-Hospital and Retrieval Medicine Doctors on board and the first to carry blood, allowing the patient to receive blood transfusions en route to hospital. Timing is critical in any emergency situation. Being able to provide services usually reserved for the emergency room on touch down can significantly improve a patient’s well-being and health.
The Auckland Westpac Rescue Helicopter operates 24/7 365 days of the year and, as a charitable organisation, relies primarily on the goodwill of the community.
Through the Rodney community rallying together for the festival, including local businesses giving generously, hundreds of thousands of dollars have been raised. This kindness has helped Westpac Rescue Auckland be there when lives, patients and their loved ones, are counting on its life-saving services.
OUR SUPPORTERS
