Airbourne Awards Donations to Local Charities

23rd November 2023

More than £8,000 has been presented to three local charities following the success of bucket collections and donations at this year’s Airbourne: Eastbourne International Airshow.

Eastbourne Dementia Action Alliance, The Salvation Army and Air Ambulance Charity Kent Surrey Sussex each received a donation of £2,696.45 at a presentation this week at the International Lawn Tennis Centre in Devonshire Park.

Representatives from the charities were presented with cheques with each organisation receiving 10% of the total donations, which this year amounted to almost £27,000.

Also at the presentation were representatives from the Rotary Clubs of Sovereign Harbour and Hailsham, who co-ordinated the bucket collections during the four-day free airshow in August, along with representatives of Eastbourne Borough Council. 

Airbourne has raised over £100,000 for local charities since 2012, in addition to the funding needed to support the show.

The bucket collections have become integral in securing a vibrant flying programme at the airshow, with 70% of donations helping to fund the flying displays and the remaining 30% of donations being split between three local charities, all of whom support the show with volunteer collectors.

With Airbourne set to return next year for its 30^th anniversary, organisers have also revealed that as well as two local charities, the People’s Charity – chosen by members of the public – will also return in 2024.

Councillor Margaret Bannister, Eastbourne Borough Council’s Lead Member for Tourism & Culture, said, “I want to thank everyone who donated so generously at Airbourne as this helps the vital work that the chosen charities carry out.

“We are proud to have supported them at this year’s Airbourne and I am delighted to see them presented with cheques.

“As a free airshow, the annual bucket collections are a fundamental source of funding and the rest of the donations will go a long way to keep Airbourne flying high with a packed programme of displays in the future.

“I also want to thank all those volunteers who were out with their buckets collecting donations on all four days of the airshow.”

Eastbourne Dementia Action Alliance Treasurer, Jenny Eldridge, said “Airbourne was a great success for us as we had over a dozen of our wonderful volunteers shaking buckets across the four days, and the response from the public was tremendous.

“We’d like to thank the council for their support and Sovereign Harbour Rotary Club for nominating us as their Airbourne charity. All the money our charity receives will be spent on increasing awareness of dementia across Eastbourne.”

Nick Turrell, Community Fundraising Manager at Air Ambulance Charity Kent Surrey Sussex said, ““A heartfelt thank you to our incredible community for the generous donations made in the Airbourne bucket collections this year.  We’re a charity that’s here for millions of people across Kent, Surrey and Sussex.

“Every day we respond to nine emergency calls on average – giving people the best chance of survival, and keeping families together.  This lifesaving service costs £45,000 every day to deliver and we couldn’t continue our work with the support of our local community – thank you.”

Major Gillian Dicker at the Salvation Army said “We would like to thank everybody who gave, they were very generous and kind.  The Money will go towards our work with the homeless and vulnerable in Eastbourne.”

Steve Newman, speaking on behalf of the Rotary Clubs of Sovereign Harbour and Hailsham, said, “The charities provided considerable volunteers over the four days of Airbourne and collected a considerable amount of money.

“However, they were not the only volunteer collectors who contributed to the collections. There were many independent volunteers, the council also provided a number of collectors, as did a number of local charities that have been supported in the past and other local Rotary Clubs.

“I can only give massive deep heartfelt thanks to all those who joined in as voluntary collectors as without them we would not have collected the large amount of money that we did.”

As planning for next year’s show gets underway, donations can now be made online at the airshow website, which will be shared with next year’s three chosen charities.

Airbourne returns to celebrate 30 years from 15 – 18 August 2024.  For more information on the airshow or to donate visit www.EastbourneAirshow.com.