Westpac Rescue Helicopter now has an additional $1000 thanks to the staff at Forsyths, who deposit money to the Forsyths Foundation from their weekly wage to donate to charity.
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The foundation is a small not-for-profit company and all deposits paid into it by staff from Armidale, Inverell, Tamworth, Gunnedah and Coonabarabran branches are matched dollar-for-dollar by Forsyths, so that by year’s end there is a good sized donation to distribute.
Foundation chair Paul Cornwall said staff from the five centres nominate a local charity they would like to donate to each year and the foundation’s committee makes the final decision.
The committee also chooses a charity for its annual donation and Inverell’s Brighter Access was this year’s recipient of $5000.
Other recipients of $1000 donations were the RSPCA at Gunnedah, Tamworth’s Heaven Can Wait Animal Shelter, and the Royal Flying Doctor Service at Coonabarabran.
There are only two rules for organisations to receive funding.
- Paul Cornwall
“Organisations have to be an eligible charity and the funding had to be spent on local initiatives,” Paul said.
“The foundation is happy to support the helicopter because it’s all money coming back to helping people in need or with an emergency, particularly in our region.
“Last year’s donation for Armidale went into Backtrack. We consider our needs each year and just go from there.”
The foundation was established in 2015 and Forsyths now has more than 100 employees, so Paul wondered if it was not time to go back and see if more could be done.
“It’s still pretty early days for us, it’s only our third year, but we’ll keep trying to build on it.”
