Air ambulance delighted to resume face-to-face fundraising

Thr air ambulance which serves Sussex is restarting some of its public fundraising in a bid to boost much-needed funds.

Air Ambulance Kent Surrey Sussex (KSS) is delighted to see its volunteers now returning to shops and public venues to empty full collection boxes and is planning face-to-face recruitment of new lottery members from May 17.

KSS is an independent charity which relies heavily on public donations. The Coronavirus pandemic has meant that all of KSS’ face-toface fundraising has been put on pause since March 2020, including lottery canvassing and volunteering activities, as well as multiple events being cancelled or postponed until 2021.

But the charity says it is delighted to be able to restart some public fundraising, whilst observing social distancing and following rules set out by government. KSS will continue to monitor the situation on an ongoing basis and in line with the government’s roadmap. The return to limited public fundraising follows extensive risk assessments carried out for each activity to assess the areas of fundraising that could be reintroduced safely.

In addition to volunteers emptying full collection boxes and the recruitment of new lottery members, carried out by Tower Lotteries on KSS’ behalf, KSS will be assessing further volunteer activities in the coming weeks, including attendance at events and manned store collections.

Lynne Harris, Executive Director of Income Generation, Marketing and Communications at KSS says: “People are at the heart of everything we do at KSS, and so the health and safety of our communities is our top priority.

“We want to reassure our supporters that we are following all available advice and are only returning to public fundraising at a time that is safe and suitable to do so.

“We will follow updates from government closely and will re-pause our public activities if needed.”

Lynne said it had been more than a year since the charity had been able to funraise within the communities, which has had a huge impact on its income.

“We have more than 2,900 collection boxes across our regions, which generated more than £163,000 for us throughout 2019-2020. Our lottery scheme generates 51% of our annual income and canvassing is the most effective way for us to speak to our communities about how the scheme enables us to continue saving lives across Kent, Surrey and Sussex. We are incredibly pleased to be able to restart these two activities but will only do so in a way that is safe and appropriate.”

Steps have been put in place to ensure all activities are done in a safe, compliant manner, with KSS volunteers complying with the social distancing rules, sanitising hands and wearing PPE.

Canvassers will use display boards with a visual reminder to maintain a two metre distance and all volunteers will follow all government advice surrounding symptoms and self-isolation.

Canvassers will have new, larger ID badges for easier identification from a distance, and will never ask to enter your home or porch.

For more information visit: aakss.org.uk