DURING National Volunteers’ Week (June 1-7) I would like to pay tribute to all of our volunteers at Wiltshire Air Ambulance.
We are a small team and our volunteers are so important in helping to raise the £3.25m a year we need to operate our lifesaving service and for our major fundraising appeal to raise the remaining £1.25m for our new air base at Semington, near Melksham.
Our volunteers give up their free time to spread the word about our lifesaving work. 
As well as volunteering in our shops, they represent us by attending events which raise funds for us, by manning stalls and selling our merchandise in all weathers. 
They also give talks to groups in the community, carry out bucket collections and sort and distribute our 30,000 Christmas cards.
We have many requests to attend community events which raise funds for Wiltshire Air Ambulance and in 2016 our volunteers covered 163 events, amounting to about 1,304 hours – an incredible achievement and thank you to everyone who took part.
We are truly grateful to our volunteers for their commitment and we would love for more people to join us.
If you are interested in volunteering drop us a line at hello@wiltshireairambulance.co.uk or call the charity team on (01380) 739453.
JEMMA BROWN
Volunteer manager
Wiltshire Air Ambulance