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Rescuers Get Anniversary Gift From Isle Of Wight Foundation

(L to R): WightSAR founder and chairman Dean Terrett, Island Roads senior district steward and award sponsor, Matt Shaw, and IW Foundation Co-ordinator Samantha O’Rourke

Search and rescue organisation, WightSAR, has received a welcome gift on its tenth anniversary – a £16,000 cheque from the Isle of Wight Foundation.

The money will help the organisation buy and adapt a much-needed new command vehicle to replace the existing they say is increasingly unreliable and expensive to maintain.

The grant is the first of eleven totalling more than £85,000 to be announced this year by the Isle of Wight Foundation.

Each year, the Foundation awards grants of between £3,000 and £16,000 to help good causes tackle social exclusions and since 2014 nearly £630,000 has been awarded to such organisations.

WightSAR founder and chairman, Dean Terrett, said he was thrilled to receive the £16,000 from the Foundation:

“Over the past ten years, our members – none of whom are paid - have provided over 26,000 volunteering hours at all times of the day or night and often in extreme weather conditions.

“It is great the Foundation award comes in the very month WightSAR celebrates its tenth anniversary – it will give us all a lift as we embark on the next ten years of serving the Island – a massive thank you to Island Roads and the IW Foundation.”

IW Foundation chairman Rob Gillespie added:

“They have such an amazing network of trained volunteers and we are delighted to support their work by helping to provide the new control vehicle."

The IW Foundation will be announcing the remaining recipients of its 2021 grant award in the coming weeks.

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