The Waihī St John ambulance station is just $111,000 away from completing its vital rebuild, with staff calling on the community to help make it happen, one “111” at a time.
The station on Johnstone St was run down, earthquake-prone, and no longer fit for purpose, Hato Hone St John group operations manager Coromandel South Julia Te Huia told The Profile.
It’s been pulled down to make way for something new – a “home away from home” for the staff and volunteers who assist with around 215 call-outs every month.
“The station was built sometime back in the 1970s, and over the years it’s just become more and more not fit for purpose,” Julia said.
“[A new building] will give the staff who are working hard all day every day a nice place to come back to and rest and recharge.”
The Waihī station has been relocated to a temporary location along Hazard St, but Julia said the timeline for the rebuild – which would be a state-of-the-art premises featuring a new kitchen and restrooms – was still on track for being completed by the end of June.
However, though Hato Hone St John has raised more than 75 per cent of the total funds required, it still needed to fundraise $111k.
They’ve established a ‘111’ fundraiser to occur throughout the month of March, asking people to challenge themselves to either a single event or a month-long objective.
Ideas included: walking, running, or cycling 111kms; completing 111 laps of a pool; sinking 111 balls along a golf course; hitting 111 nails into a wall during a home renovation project; or even baking 111 cupcakes.
Participants can sign up to the Waihī 111 challenge, or donate to the cause, online.
And they didn’t have to be local, Julia said.
“We’re encouraging anybody to sign up,” she said. “You could be on holiday in Waihī Beach and need an ambulance. People come from all over New Zealand to come up to the Coromandel. There has definitely been increased workload [over summer].”
The team working from the Waihī station can transport patients across to Thames Hospital, to Waikato Hospital, Tauranga Hospital – “and anything can happen in between”, Julia said.
“There’s been a lot of volunteer work and support behind the scenes to get this [rebuild] up to where it is; past managers and a lot of people that have been a part of the project over the last couple of decades.”
Emergency medical technician Dean Moffett agreed that a new state of the art station would allow the staff to maintain their own welfare and wellbeing all year round.
“It will also allow us to comfortably study and develop our skills to continue delivering life changing interventions to our community and surrounding areas.”
DETAILS: To donate or to take part in the Waihī 111 Challenge, visit fundraise.stjohn.org.nz/t/waihi-111-challenge
