THE Aberdeen & North East branch of St John Scotland has been chosen as the recipient of the 2023 Celebrate Aberdeen Parade collection fund.
The organisation will receive the £1,000 fund to support its Community Defibrillator Scheme. Over the years, the charity has been helping save lives across Scotland by providing advice, training and funding to communities to install public access defibrillators. The parade funding will be used to install another defibrillator for the benefit of another community in the region.
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The funds were generated from the collecting buckets carried by volunteers during the parade. Since the parade first started in 2011, thousands of pounds have been raised by the generosity of the spectators who line the parade route. One hundred per cent of the money raised each year goes to one of the participating organisations.
“Every defibrillator that we install across our region can save lives, so this funding will be invaluable in providing this lifesaving equipment to another community,” said Joe Mackie, area chair, Aberdeen and NE branch of St John.
“Having access to a defibrillator can mean the difference between life or death if someone suffers a cardiac arrest, significantly improving survival rates if it is deployed as soon as possible after a collapse.
“We are extremely grateful to Celebrate Aberdeen for choosing us as the recipient of this year’s street collection fund. I’m sure they will have received many excellent submissions so it can’t have been an easy decision.”
During 2023 alone, St John Scotland installed more than a dozen defibrillators across Aberdeen city and shire and provided CPR and defibrillator training to more than 700 people right across the region.
Since 2019, it has also been providing an annual CPR training programme to pupils at Lochside Academy, reaching a landmark this year when it trained its 1,000th student.
Nationally, the organisation has a long-standing relationship with Scottish Mountain Rescue, becoming the biggest charitable donor to the teams providing funds for vehicles, equipment and bases.
In April this year, it launched its patient transport service in the Moray area.
Around 4,000 marchers representing 130 organisations took part in the last year’s parade and all participating organisations were invited to bid for the street collection donation.
“The local branch of St John Scotland provides lifesaving support across Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire and we’re very pleased to name it as this year’s recipient,” said Celebrate Aberdeen board member John Slater.
“The calibre of applications for this event is always very high and emphasises year on year how much good work is going on across our region. I’d like to thank everyone who took the time to apply. I’d also like to thank the members of the public who make this possible by donating to the collection buckets during the parade. This is only possible because of their generosity.”
Organisations have until Friday, June 28 to register for this year’s Celebrate Aberdeen parade which will take place on Saturday, August 31. To register, visit Celebrate Aberdeen (en-GB) – Celebrate Aberdeen (en-GB) (celebrate-aberdeen.org)
Nominations have also opened for the 2024 Celebrate Aberdeen Awards. More information is available at www.celebrate-aberdeen.org
