Skipton-based wine and spirits merchant, the Wright Wine Company, have donated over £450 to the Yorkshire Air Ambulance, mainly from the sales of wooden wine packaging crates to customers.
The retailer and wholesaler, whose shop has been a feature in Skipton since 1982, is traditionally known as a wine merchant, although also stocks several thousand bottles of spirits too. Their wine is delivered from all parts of the globe, with French wine in particular coming in branded wooden crates for protection.
Julian Kaye, Managing Director said;
“Some of the vineyard’s branding on the crates is quite ornate – and customers started taking a shine to them. At first we just gave them away, or used them for firewood – but we then had the idea to charge a small, nominal fee – every penny of which goes to charity.”
Customers have reportedly been using the crates as window boxes for herbs, additions to ferret runs or simply re-purposing them as presentation boxes for gifts. As the crates are not returnable to the vineyards, finding a way to reuse and upcycle them is an additional benefit alongside the fundraising.
Julian continues;
“The Yorkshire Air Ambulance provides a fantastic service that covers the more rural and inaccessible parts of Yorkshire, as well as the well-travelled and more densely populated. It’s certainly of benefit to us in this part of North Yorkshire, and we’re proud to support them.”
The Yorkshire Air Ambulance charity was set up in 2000 to provide fast medical reponce to the Yorkshire region. It costs around £4.4 million pounds per year to run.
Linda Stead, North Yorkshire Regional Fundraiser for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance, said:
“We would like to say a huge thank you to The Wright Wine Company for their support and generosity and raising an impressive £450 through selling old wine crates. This is such an inventive way to not only raise money for a fantastic cause, but help give older items a new lease of life.
It costs £12,000 a day to keep both of Yorkshire’s Air Ambulances maintained and in the air and the money raised will help tremendously towards the vital running of our service and help us continue saving lives across region.”
The importance of the Yorkshire Air Ambulance cannot be understated – flying time from Skipton to Leeds General Infirmary, for example, is just 11 minutes – whereas by road could take over 60 minutes.
Photo: Wright Wine Company’s Dave Baxter readies more boxes in the name of charity. (Happy Birthday Dave!!).
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About Yorkshire Air Ambulance
The Yorkshire Air Ambulance is an independent charity providing a life saving rapid response emergency service to 5 million people across the whole of Yorkshire. The service is operational seven days a week, 365 days a year. The Charity currently attend an average of 5 incidents every single day. Last year (2019) they attended 1,598 incidents and carried 364 of those to hospital for emergency treatment.