Rescue team issue appeal for support
AMOUNTAIN rescue team is looking for support to win cash for protective kit for its volunteers.
Buxton Mountain Rescue Team (BMRT) helps walkers in distress in the countryside around Macclesfield.
The volunteer organisation is a charity which relies on donations and fundraising to keep going.
Now the team is calling for the support of the community to help win funding as part of the Aviva Community Fund 2017. Their bid has been successful but only projects with the most votes will become finalists.
The team is relying on votes to increase their chances of winning funding of up to £5,000 which they will use to provide protective equipment for their water rescue trained personnel. This will enable them to be appropriately kitted out when called to rescue or search for people in and around water.
Carina Humberstone, BMRT’s training officer said: “With £5,000 we would be able to kit out six water rescue personnel with a heavy duty drysuit, a specialist buoyancy aid, helmet, throwline and belt. With six rescuers kitted out we will have two sections that could be deployed independently to search water margins, including reservoirs and rivers; work in floodwater and within water, and when combined they would work as one unit to safely effect rescues within moving water. This would immediately enhance the team’s capability with regard to water response.”
The rescue team is run entirely by volunteers, who put in hundreds of hours alongside their day jobs, to train and respond to 999 calls when members of the public need their services.
The team was formed in 1964 after a tragic accident when three scouts died in a blizzard whilst attempting the Four Inns Walk, a 50 mile hike over some of the Peak District’s most challenging terrain.
Although they primarily rescue people, and animals, lost or injured in the hills; increasingly they are being asked to search and rescue people from floodwater, rivers, reservoirs and other bodies of water.
To vote for Buxton Mountain Rescue Team and help make a difference visit communityfund.aviva.co.uk/voting/ project/view/17-2091.
Register and submit your vote before November 21. For more information on Buxton Mountain Rescue Team visit facebook.com/BuxtonMRT or buxtonmountainrescue. org.uk.