St John and Blackcaps partner up

5 February 2008

St John and NZ Cricket have agreed a special partnership - with St John (New Zealand's largest ambulance provider) the Charity of Choice for the BLACKCAPS for a two year period.

NZ Cricket (NZC) CEO Justin Vaughan and St John Chief Executive Jaimes Wood made the announcement at a launch of the partnership in Auckland today.

"NZC and the BLACKCAPS support the important work St John members do, saving lives and improving the health and wellbeing of New Zealanders. We will work with St John to raise the profile of the vital work they carry out for the community and to help raise funds for that work," Mr Vaughan said.

"Both St John and the BLACKCAPS have their roots firmly in New Zealand and both highly value the support they receive from the public," Mr Wood said.

"St John and the BLACKCAPS serve the community in quite different but important ways. We are joining forces to maximise the benefits that - together - we can bring the people of New Zealand.

"St John and BLACKCAPS players will together promote community participation and the importance of healthy lifestyles - including awareness of injury prevention and first aid," Mr Wood said.

St John has a strong and historical connection with the sporting public of New Zealand, providing first aid and emergency care services on the sidelines of local and national sporting events for many years.

Under the partnership, the BLACKCAPS will encourage members of the public to support St John's vital emergency ambulance, first aid training and community work. St John is a charitable organisation that relies on public fundraising to provide its full range of services to New Zealand communities - including donations to help run the ambulance services.

NZ Cricket will help St John raise funds at matches through text message campaigns and will provide players and memorabilia to assist with St John fundraising and public awareness campaigns. As part of the partnership, the public can donate to St John by text messaging the word CARE to 883 to donate $3 and by phoning 0900 ST JOHN to make an automatic $20 donation at any time. Our usual donation channels remain open.

Inquiries: Ali Tocker, St John External Communications Manager, 027 211 2159; Steve Addison, NZ Cricket Public Affairs Manager, 021 531 194

About St John

Our services

· St John is a community organisation

· St John is New Zealand's largest ambulance service provider

· We provide ambulance services to more than 85 per cent of New Zealand's population and 95 per cent of the country's geography.

· St John has 185 ambulance stations throughout New Zealand, providing services from the top of the North Island to Bluff at the bottom of the South Island. We also service Stewart Island, Pitt Island and the Chatham Islands.

· Our ambulance service treats and transports more than 320,000 patients a year and attends more than 245,000 emergency incidents a year.

· St John is more than ambulance. To build community resilience and reduce demand for ambulances, St John provides a range of health-related and community services.

· We provide first aid and emergency services at public events

· We train more than 54,000 people a year in first aid, and sell first aid kits as part of our fundraising

· Trained St John volunteers help people get to medical appointments in our specially equipped Health Shuttles

· Our Caring Caller volunteers support isolated or unwell people who live alone with a daily phone call to check that all is okay

· St John Friends of the Emergency Department volunteers provide comfort and care to patients and their families in hospital emergency departments.

· St John has provided services in New Zealand for more than 120 years - since 1885.

Our people

· St John has more than 13,000 members including more than 7,000 volunteers, and more than 4,000 members of our St John Youth programme.

· We have 3,130 ambulance officers - i.e. 2,318 volunteers and 812 paid.

· St John gives people the opportunity to be involved in volunteering throughout New Zealand. Our volunteers range in age from students to retired people, and come from a variety of backgrounds including ambulance officers, doctors, nurses, homemakers, teachers, hospitality staff and electricians.

Our funding

· St John is a charitable organisation - our services are not fully government funded

· We rely on the support of the people of New Zealand, fundraising and donations to provide the high level of service we currently provide including our ambulance service.

For more information: www.stjohn.org.nz

Quickfacts about St John

Some key statistics describe the size and shape of our work

2006-07 financial year

Patients treated and transported by ambulance officers: 322,644

Number of emergency incidents attended: 249,664

Number of ambulance and operational vehicles: 551

Kilometres travelled by ambulances: 14.6 million

Students trained in first aid: 54,570

Children participated in the St John Safe Kids programme: 52,088

Events attended: 8,305

Event volunteers: 1,300

Caring Caller clients: 885

Caring Caller volunteers: 864

Friends of the Emergency Department volunteers: 549

Total volunteers (Head Count): 7,070

Total paid staff (Head Count): 2,148

Youth membership: 4,309

Total membership (Head Count): 13,527

About the BLACKCAPS

· The BLACKCAPS are New Zealand's national men's cricket team.

· The BLACKCAPS play England in two Twenty20 internationals at Eden Park, Auckland (Tuesday 5 February) and AMI Stadium, Christchurch (Thursday 7 February).

· The Twenty20 squad is: Brendon McCullum (captain), Jesse Ryder, Jamie How, Ross Taylor, Scott Styris. Jacob Oram, Peter Fulton, Kyle Mills, Paul Hitchcock, Chris Martin, Tim Southee, Jeetan Patel.

· The Black Caps have 5 One Day Internationals and 3 test matches coming up this season against England.

· The BLACKCAPS are currently ranked 3rd in the world in One Day cricket.

· Daniel Vettori (the BLACKCAPS captain) is the number 2 allrounder in the world, and the BLACKCAPS' top bowler.

· Stephen Fleming is the BLACKCAPS top batsman.

ENDS

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