West Mid Rescue Team Looks to Crowd Funding for New Equipment

A rescue team for Shropshire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire has launched a crowd-funding campaign to buy gear for its members.

WMSAR are a team of 30 unpaid specialists in land and water search, and are a registered charity. They're exactly like a mountain rescue team, but without the mountains.

They receive no funding from the government or police, and rely on operational members to pay for their own fuel, personal equipment and time. They ask an awful lot from members in terms of commitment from them and their families.

WMSAR are fundraising to equip their existing 30 members - and 10 new recruits who will start their training in the next few weeks - with some winter essentials to ease the financial burden on them.

A spokesperson for the team said: “WMSAR believes that this is the first time crowd-funding has been used to help a UK search and rescue team fund their equipment, and hopes that it will ease the burden on its operational members having to devote as much unpaid time towards fundraising.

“The registered charity, which is a lowland rescue member team, does not receive the same annual grant from Government as mountain rescue, and thus all equipment and training is paid for by charitable donations and the members themselves.

“The average operational member of the team gives over 80 hours towards fundraising per year, on top of their commitment to training and callouts.”