Small, independent and local businesses play an important role in championing the Devon Air Ambulance service and lending much-needed support, both in fundraising and in-kind, to the charity. We speak to Rob, Director of Waggle, who has generously donated his audio-visual support to us over recent years and during a year that has been incredibly challenging for small businesses in particular. 

"Waggle Events has been working with the Devon Air Ambulance since 2017. We set up Waggle Events to help charities, community projects and their volunteers with their events, in the case of Devon Air Ambulance, providing an outdoor screen for their Commando Challenge and staging for the Motorcycle Ride Out. 

'Over this time we have shared over £800.00 of profit with the charity and we had been looking forward to providing our support again this year. However, with live events and mass participation fundraisers being cancelled throughout 2020 due to the pandemic, our ability to support the charity and offer a share in profits this year has been severely limited.

'We see giving our time to record and produce video content for the charity, with a view to supporting virtual base visits, as an alternative opportunity to provide that support.

'The role of charities within our communities has become more and more important in recent years and this has been no exception for DAA as it introduces new services, increases night flight capacity and brings a new helicopter into service, while being forced to reduce fundraising events and temporarily close their shops. 

'As we are a company whose work includes facilitating sporting and remotely-located events, we are acutely aware of the essential role DAA plays across all our communities in Devon, which fits perfectly with our mission to help charities flourish through live events.

'As restrictions make it harder for us all to be part of our communities in many ways, our much-loved local businesses have risen to their individual challenges and offered us new ways to support them and have, in turn, risen to those challenges within their communities, offering support and assistance as they have been able.  

The support and recognition of our work with the DAA helps to communicate the work we are doing to our community of customers and freelancers, reinforcing our family and community ethos. I would urge any business who would like to get involved in some way supporting DAA to do so as it is hugely rewarding.

'We would like to thank Devon Air Ambulance for the opportunity to work with them over recent years. We look forward to supporting the charity as we return to public fundraising events (fingers crossed) in 2021 and will be helping to bring virtual air base visits to life for their supporters.'

Small businesses have continued to be incredible in championing us through fundraising and in-kind generosity, in spite of a very challenging year for them and we want to thank them for their ongoing support.

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