Milton Volunteer Fire Brigade picked up a welcome bonus last week as the town’s Senior Citizens Club downsized.
Representative Moira Hastie said the Milton Senior Citizens Club started 50 or 60 years ago and had more than 100 members when she joined in the late 1990s.
‘‘My mother was a founding member, and when I reached the joining age of 55 there was a list of people waiting to get in.’’
The club worked in a kind of partnership with Milton RSA but with membership dropping off to present numbers of ‘‘12 or 15 members’’, the responsibilities of maintaining premises were no longer practical.
‘‘We’re running without a committee or elected offices and we’ll have a different relationship with the local RSA now, but we’re still running as a friendship group, meeting fortnightly at the same place.’’
The downsized senior citizens club had residual funds from raffles and donations which dissolving societies are not allowed to keep.
The club women quickly decided the local fire brigade was the right non› profit group to get their proceeds.
‘‘When an incorporated club winds up you look for a charity to donate leftover funds to. The volunteer firefighters are an obvious, sensible choice because the next time their siren goes the money will be going to immediately help local people.’’
‘‘Fire and Emergency New Zealand are expert at managing donations,’’ Milton Volunteer Fire Brigade Chief Fire officer Robbie Phillip said.
‘‘We’re very grateful to the Milton Senior Citizens Club.’’
The brigade will be using the donation to upgrade its rescue kit with a state›of›the› art collapsible carry›basket for patients.
