The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride and Wilberforce Sixth Form College are saving lives through their initiative of restoring classic motorbikes to then be donated to the Yorkshire Air Ambulance. The charity then tours the bike across the county, raising integral funds through auctioning the sought-after 1999 Suzuki GZ 125 Marauder.
Recently, Wilberforce Upskilling students visited the Yorkshire Air Ambulance (YAA) base in Nostell. The students had a tour around the whole base finding out how the project they are a part of with The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride (DGR) bike provides critical equipment for YAA.
Over the past four years our Greenpower Team Upskilling Programme have restored and refitted two classic motorbikes to be good as new and provides the students with life skills to be successful in future endeavours. The students are currently working on their third bike nicknamed ‘Freedom’ for their deadline in May, where the bike will be ridden by a member of the DGR and further supporting the YAA. This Upskilling Programme takes place on a weekly basis which encourages students to try something new or build upon their subject areas whilst improving their CV’s and stand out from others when applying for universities.
The visit to YAA provided an in-depth tour of exactly what the money raised by the students provides the staff and volunteers. With the helicopter costing £19,000 to be deployed each time the helicopter lifts off the ground, which is in operation at least 5 times a day, fully equipped with advanced medical devices and space for 5 personnel. As well as the life like dummies used by the staff when training for any situation each dummy costing £6,000. Our students were able to get a deeper understanding of how each role within the YAA is supported.
YAA gets all of their funding through volunteers and their fundraising and then the rest is made up through donations. YAA is a fully donation-based charity and has no funding via the government or the NHS and so the support from the Upskilling Students is vital to the life-saving skills, equipment and team daily.
