Spotlight on our sponsorships!
Every year, MainPower looks at ways we can support North Canterbury Communities – just like they support us!
A few months ago, the opportunity to help the Kaikōura community out with some funding for an important local project…an air rescue helipad (right outside the hospital) came to our attention. As a community-owned regional electrical distribution network, supporting this project was an obvious choice for us.
MainPower funds community projects around our network, but it is not every day that we get to be part of something so crucial to a community. Deciding to make a donation of the remaining $15,000, was able to close the gap and enable the project to reach its funding goal of $93,000.
The project was spearheaded by the Kaikōura Lions Club, fundraising and giving this project their all. As we are all aware, the air rescue service is pivotal on stretches of road like those between Christchurch and Kaikōura.
Last Wednesday, representatives of MainPower travelled up to Kaikōura for the official opening (at this stage the helipad had already been utilised, just a week prior to the official opening for a serious incident just north of Kaikōura).
We heard from the local lions president Alan Gulleford on what this project has meant to him and his team, and how excited they are to have been able to gift this helipad to the community.
To echo what Penny (our General Manager of customer and corporate relations) mentioned in her speech during the opening “This life-saving facility streamlines patient transport, providing faster access to emergency medical treatment. Compared to most of our community distributions, this is the one funding project MainPower has supported that I hope none of you ever need or use.”
Check out a few photos of the opening, and the new helipad below.
