GEW donates to AAKSS, the Air Ambulance Charity Kent Surrey Sussex, on a regular basis. Below you will find a regular update of these donations to the charity.
UPDATE: November 17, 2022
GEW is proud to sponsor a variety of worthy causes close to home, in Sussex and Surrey.
One such sponsorship is in support of a prestigious Christmas Carol Concert in Guildford Cathedral, raising vital funds for the Air Ambulance Charity Kent Surrey Sussex (KSS).
The evening event will be full of festivity, music and warmth, with a heart-warming programme of poems, inspiring speeches from special guests and your favourite festive carols, led by the amazing Guildford Choir Singers.
Christmas Carol Concert in Guildford Cathedral, raising vital funds for the Air Ambulance Charity Kent Surrey Sussex (KSS). Tickets are available from £15 and every ticket purchased will help KSS deliver life-saving critical care across Kent, Surrey and Sussex, including throughout the Christmas period. Last year KSS responded to 89 incidents in Surrey throughout December, with two on Christmas Day. Fundraisers such as KSS’s Carol Concert ensure the most critically ill and injured people get the care they need, every minute of every day.
Lauren Simmons, Head of Events at KSS said: “This is our first Carol Concert at Guildford Cathedral and will be the first time we’ve been able to host an in-person Carol Concert of this scale since 2019. We are enormously excited to be able to invite you, your family, your friends and colleagues to come together and help us give the gift of life this Christmas. We would like to thank GEW for their generosity in sponsoring this event.”
KSS provides world-leading pre-hospital emergency care whenever and wherever required to save lives and ensure the best possible patient outcomes. Its crews of pilots, doctors and paramedics responded to 3,051 incidents in 2021, the charity’s busiest year in its 32-year history – and so far, 2022 has been even busier. It currently costs over £15.2m a year to operate KSS’s life-saving service 24/7, with 86% of total income raised through the incredible generosity of its supporters.
For further information or to book tickets, please visit www.aakss.org.uk/carolsguildford or call 01622 471979
UPDATE: February 4th, 2022
GEW has continued its support of the Air Ambulance Kent Surrey Sussex (AAKSS) charity with two recent internal fundraising events. AAKSS, like many other charities, have struggled to raise funds throughout the COVID pandemic and GEW are keen to support them where possible.
The two most recent charity events at GEW included a Christmas Jumper Day, where staff made a donation in exchange for wearing their Christmas jumper to work. This raised £148 for the charity.
A raffle also took place at GEW’s Crawley base, with staff allowed to buy as many tickets as they liked. Each year GEW customers and suppliers kindly donate Christmas gifts to be given out as prizes in the raffle, which this year ranged from hampers, to chocolate, Amazon vouchers, fine wines, and much more. This raised a further £466 for AAKSS.
Why donate to AAKSS?
AAKSS are a dedicated team who attended over 2500 incidents in 2021 alone. The team of experts cover a wide area of the South of England, where they are able to reach any part of Kent, Sussex or Surrey in under 30 minutes. This enables them to give urgent medical attention in critical situations, often saving lives at the scene of the incident.
They operate two teams for 18 hours every day, with smaller teams covering the quieter hours each day. Their fleet of helicopters and Rapid Response Vehicles transport doctors and paramedics to their patients 24/7, 365 days a year.
AAKSS are an independent charity with costs over £15m a year, with 86% of that raised by or donated by people from the local area. The charity has existed for over 30 years and their teams have covered over 35,000 incidents in total, during that time.
You can find out more about AAKSS on their website at https://www.aakss.org.uk/
If you wish to donate to the charity you can find out how here https://www.aakss.org.uk/donate/
Learn more about GEW’s other charity and sponsorship activity here.
UPDATE: February 21st, 2021
Although 2020 has sadly prevented the usual company-wide social events, GEW staff rallied together and joined in the Christmas charity fundraising activities. Colleagues at both facilities donned their best festive pullovers during the annual “Wear A Christmas Jumper Day”, resulting in a colourful display in the offices and production areas. As a result a considerable contribution is being made to the Air Ambulance for Kent Surrey & Sussex (AAKSS).
In addition, corporate gifts to the company were pooled together and given out as prizes in the Staff Charity Christmas Raffle. Thank you letters have been sent to all those who generously donated gifts and all funds raised from the tickets sold were added to the AAKSS donation. The final sum amounted to over £550 and AAKSS sent a kind letter of thanks to acknowledge the donation.
You can find out more about the invaluable work of the Air Ambulance Kent Surrey & Sussex at www.aakss.org.uk
UPDATE: August 10th, 2020
In common with so many charities, Air Ambulance Kent Surrey Sussex (AAKSS) has been hit hard by the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic. The charity has launched a Coronavirus Emergency Appeal in a bid to raise funds to cover the additional costs of operating its emergency response service safely, in a pandemic situation.
It is the most important appeal that AAKSS has ever launched, and GEW has assisted in this crucial fundraising effort by contributing a £5000 donation to the cause.
David Welch, CEO at AAKSS, outlines the situation: “We are fully committed to working on the front line to support the NHS and our communities and to save many more lives. But as a charity, we are completely reliant on the generosity of our donors and supporters, at a time when fundraising is challenging indeed, with 89% of the £14million we need each year to run our service comprising funds raised or donated by the public we serve.”
“We face an anticipated shortfall of £2.9 million pounds, which is a projected loss of fundraising income due to the Coronavirus. This is all at a time when fundraising is very challenging indeed. Our collection pots alone normally bring in more than £200,000 for us a year, which is just one of the many ways we would usually be out in our communities fundraising.”
Kelly Heaton-Ralph, Head of Development at AAKSS, expressed her gratitude to GEW in a letter to the company directors, saying: “In these uncertain times we need your support more than ever as we face the biggest challenge in our 30-year history. We simply could not do it without you and are so grateful to have your support.”
“Your donation is a significant contribution to our appeal and will help provide vital Personal Protective Equipment for our medical team, as well as continuing our 24/7 service for the sickest and most critically injured patients across our regions.”
If you are able to support the appeal, please visit www.aakss.org.uk/appeal
Or to find out more about AAKSS generally, visit: www.aakss.org.uk
Alternatively, to learn more about GEWs other charity and sponsorship efforts, go here.
UPDATE: 11th July 2019… Air Aid Ball raises a fantastic £103,000
GEW will be the Spotlight Sponsor of the 2019 Air Aid Ball, a key fundraising event for the Air Ambulance Service in Kent, Surrey and Sussex.
The Air Aid Ball was launched by a group of local residents in 2007 with the aim of raising awareness and much needed funding to support the vital work of the Air Ambulance.
Over the past twelve years, the biennial Air Aid Ball has raised more than £350,000 for this life-saving charity. It has become a ‘must attend’ event for businesses and residents of the Kent, Surrey and Sussex region.
The Air Ambulance responds to an average of 6 emergencies every 24 hours across the counties of Kent, Surrey and Sussex, typically arriving at the scene within 25 minutes of being called. Since its inception, it has attended over 30,000 incidents but each call out costs around £3,700 and there is no government funding, hence the Air Aid Ball’s determination to help.
Redhill Aerodrome and The Redhill Flying Club were founded in 1934 by Geoffrey Last who, during that same year, also oversaw the construction of the first hangar on the airfield. Now known as ‘Hangar 9’, this historic building will be the venue for the 2019 Air Aid Ball.
To read more about the charity, visit the Air Ambulance Kent Surrey Sussex website here
Update 11th July 2019: Air Aid Ball raises a fantastic £103,000
The June 2019 Air Aid Ball has raised a fantastic £103,000. During the evening there were silent and live auctions, with a variety of exciting and imaginative lots to tempt bidders and to make the evening a resounding success.
UPDATE: January 16, 2019
Staff at GEW’s head office in Crawley all joined in the fun in the run-up to Christmas, wearing their best festive jumpers and at the same time raising funds for a favourite charity.
There was a dazzling array of cheery clothing on display during the annual Wear a Christmas Jumper Day. As well as adding plenty of colour, staff made donations to GEW’s local Air Ambulance Service and raised an impressive sum.
You can find out more about the invaluable work of the Kent Surrey & Sussex Air Ambulance here