operation market garden - Charities
Below are links to some of the charities that the Operation Market Garden 2008 event and the 315th Historical Society is supporting:
Help for Heroes was the idea of Appeal Chairman Bryn Parry and a group of friends and relations, many of who have connections with serving servicemen and women. Bryn and his wife Emma wanted to do something to help the wounded and came up with the idea of a sponsored bike ride. They mentioned it to some friends who mentioned it to some more friends and suddenly Help for Heroes was born and growing fast. A flurry of visits to various offices led to the campaign being blessed by the head of the army, Chief of the General Staff, General Sir Richard Dannatt. Help for Heroes is backed by the Army Benevolent Fund, the Army's own charity that does wonderful work for soldiers and other servicemen and women both directly and through its support of other service charities.
The Royal British Legion provides financial, social and emotional support to millions who have served and are currently serving in the Armed Forces, and their dependants. Currently, nearly 10.5 million people are eligible for our support and we receive thousands of calls for help every year. The Legion was founded in 1921 as a voice for the ex-Service community and over 450,000 members continue to ensure that this voice does not go unheard. Although the needs of ex-Service people have changed over the years, we are still there to safeguard their welfare, interests and memory. British service people are in action around the world every day of the year. They know that if they need our support - now or in the future - the Legion is always on active duty for them.
The Warwickshire & Northamptonshire Air Ambulance (WNAA) was established in October 2003 to provide an emergency medical service for the heart of England including Warwickshire, Northamptonshire and Milton Keynes. Prior to this, the region had relied on older, slower aircraft with limited space for onboard patient treatment. The new service shifted the emphasis from transporting casualties to hospital, to recognising the need to get senior Doctors and Consultants to the scene of incidents as quickly as possible, providing lifesaving treatment and medication at the scene and en-route to hospital.
The WNAA is one of only three services outside of London to routinely carry a Doctor on board. Our primary response area is the 2000 square miles of Coventry, Warwickshire, Northamptonshire, Milton Keynes and some of the key border areas like Market Harborough, Banbury and Solihull. However, we also help out our neighbours under a mutual aid agreement, in Birmingham, the West Midlands, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Leicestershire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire.
The service has 12 Doctors, 12 Paramedics & 3 Pilots which service a population of around 1.1 million people. Based at Coventry Airport, in the three years it has been operating, it has flown over 5500 missions. With an ever-increasing callout rate of between 120 and 150 callouts per month, the WNAA is the busiest air ambulance in the UK.
The WNAA is a registered charity and relies totally on donations and sponsorship. The average cost per mission is around £850 and the annual running cost of the service is over £1.4 million. Currently only able to operate in daylight hours due to the restrictive leasing costs of flying at night, WNAA aims to become the first service in the UK to operate 24 hours per day by raising over £2 million during 2007.
Various other locally based charities will also benefit from the event.
The 315th Historical Society is a non profit making organisation and all proceeds will be given to various charities.