£10,000 DONATION TO SCARBOROUGH & RYEDALE MOUNTAIN RESCUE TEAM

The Proudfoot Group donates £10,000 to Scarborough & Ryedale Mountain Rescue Team from carrier bag proceeds.

Proudfoot are supporting Scarborough and Ryedale Mountain Rescue Team this month with a donation of £10,000, raised solely from the sale of 5p single use carrier bags.

After a year of raising funds in Proudfoot stores through the mandatory 5p carrier bag charge, Valerie Aston and Marcus Proudfoot from the Proudfoot Group presented the mountain rescue team with the cheque last weekend at their Forest and Moors marathon fundraiser. Last year Proudfoot donated the proceeds raised (also £10,000) to RNLI Scarborough Lifeboat Station.

Established in 1965, the Scarborough and Ryedale Mountain Rescue Team aims to provide search and rescue facilities in cooperation with the emergency services for any person in difficulty in the North York Moors area and is run entirely by a team of around 60 volunteers. The team responded to 87 incidents last year and over 50 this year so far.

The team is currently trying to raise funds to be able to replace their existing analogue VHF radios with more modern digital versions, as well as money towards a new control vehicle and the general running costs of the rescue team.

Ian Hugill, Scarborough and Ryedale Mountain Rescue Team’s Incident Controller and Public Relations Officer, commented: “We are extremely grateful for the donation from Proudfoot who have already done a lot to support the team, including volunteering to get involved with our casualty training earlier in the year and providing food and drink for a number of our fundraising events.

“Our running costs are around £40,000 per year and we are a voluntary service that receives no direct funding, so we rely solely on the generosity of local people and businesses to provide much-needed support.”

Valerie Aston, director at The Proudfoot Group, commented: “Despite seeing a huge decline in the usage of single use carrier bags in our stores, we are delighted to be able to donate such a significant amount raised from the remaining carrier bags bought by our customers to support this fantastic local cause.”