Help save our Helicopter - by Cara Bosman (Year 11)

The Coromandel rescue helicopter base in Whitianga is a very important part of our community. Due to a government restructure of air ambulances across New Zealand, the base is earmarked to be closed. The Coromandel Rescue Helicopter Trust (the owner of the base) is organising a public meeting at the base (at the end of Abrahamson Drive) on Saturday 5 May at 3:30pm. The purpose of the meeting is to show the community’s opposition to the closure of the base.

I would like to urge all Mercury Bay Area School staff and families (parents, caregivers, children and grandparents) and their friends to attend the meeting. For us on the Coromandel, all that will happen if we lose the base is that it will take a rescue helicopter from Hamilton or Auckland much longer to get to an emergency on the Peninsula.

Walter Russell, the chairman of the Coromandel Rescue Helicopter Trust said, “Strength is in numbers.” As many people as possible need to attend the meeting so that a very strong message can be sent to the government that the base need to stay open.

I hope to see everyone at the meeting.

Cara Bosman