3 Jan 2025
Ken’s valuable volunteering contribution
Ken has been a volunteering with East Anglian Air Ambulance (EAAA) for two and a half years. He says it was a natural progression and always something he wanted to do once he stopped working. His wife has volunteered with the charity for seven years, and Ken joined her on a couple of occasions at flagship EAAA events, such as Only The Brave, our muddy obstacle course race. When Ken was made redundant, he kept his pledge and joined the EAAA team of regular volunteers who bring their skills, knowledge and enthusiasm to the charity.
Volunteers support the life-saving work of EAAA across the region. Some support the charity regularly, but others support EAAA on an occasional basis, working around their other commitments. Ken joins the Supporter Engagement Team at Helimed House each Tuesday.
“I help the team with thank you letters to donors and add record the details of kind donations onto the system,” he says. “It keeps my brain going!”
Ken says that the overarching positive gained from volunteering with EAAA is the social interaction. Having spent 38 years in the RAF administration department, he not only enjoys the camaraderie, but he gains happiness from putting the skills and knowledge he gained during his career to use with EAAA.
“I use my experience from working with people. I enjoy talking with them in the right way. I also get to use skills from my admin background, working with computers and databases,” he adds.
More recently, Ken has stepped forward to also help with Helimed House, EAAA’s Norwich headquarters, base visits for some of our corporate supporters. These visits welcome donors and fundraisers to the charity so they can meet the crew and learn more about how their kindness really does save lives.
Ken says, “Helping with base visits, meeting people from other organisations and seeing their faces, is great. Sometimes all they know about the charity is our ‘big, yellow bird’, so when they come into Helimed House and have a chance to see the helicopter, the facilities, equipment and talk to the crew, they realise more about what is involved in delivering a 24/7 life-saving service. I really enjoy this.”
Ken is one of the much-valued and respected volunteers who support EAAA in delivering the life-saving service by dedicating their time and skills in many different ways – and encourages others to consider doing the same.
“I look forward to coming into Helimed House. If anyone is thinking about volunteering with EAAA, I would say do it; you can do so many different things; from helping with admin, to delivering talks to training people in CPR.”
2025 will be volunteering business as usual for Ken.
“I really enjoy my role with EAAA and am looking forward to another happy year of volunteering.”
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Join the team
We completely depend on a dedicated, diverse and flexible group of individuals, like Ken, who volunteer to support EAAA in delivering the life-saving service by dedicating their time and skills in many different ways. If you’d like to get 2025 off to a flying start by joining the incredible team of regular or occasional volunteers.