FIRST Minister Michelle O’Neill met recently with volunteers from the Mourne Mountain Rescue Team.
She was joined by South Down MP Chris Hazzard and Mournes councillor Willie Clarke.
Ms O’Neill’s visit came just a few weeks after the rescue team launched a public appeal to help it raise £400,000 to help build an ultra-modern regional facility base at the foot of the mountains in Newcastle rocketed to £1m.
Ms O’Neill said the community is made up of so many incredible people who selflessly serve others, with the Mourne Mountain Rescue Team exemplifying this spirit.
She thanked the team for taking the time to demonstrate its work to members of the Sinn Fein delegation first-hand and for all that they do and have done over the past 60 years.
Ms O’Neill said her party will continue working hard to champion the team and all community and voluntary organisations in South Down.
Mr Hazzard, who welcomed his party’s northern leader to Newcastle, said he was delighted to meet with rescue team and local councillor Willie Clarke.
“This is the first ever mountain rescue team in Ireland, staffed by volunteers who live in and around the Mourne area,” said the MP.
“The team deserve immense credit for their remarkable efforts over the years which have saved countless lives.”
Originally, the cost of the rescue team’s new base on land at Shanslieve Drive in the resort was £650,000 but, due to significant increases in construction costs, the price has almost doubled.
To compound the current difficulty the highly acclaimed rescue team finds itself in, two grants worth £1m were lost as delays in securing planning permission for the site owned by supermarket giant Lidl meant the deadline for spending the money was missed.
The rescue team has reached out to the public to raise the money it needs to leave the charity debt free and able to focus on delivering its highly regarded rescue service.
It was recently confirmed that £20,000 had been donated, with £25,000 in pledges.
Currently, the rescue team has 30,000 followers and says if everyone donated £13.33, the £400,000 would be raised with much of the money that has come into date coming from the team’s online supporters
Twelve years ago when the rescue team celebrated its 50th anniversary, it identified one of the key challenges it faced was the lack of a fit-for-purpose base and set itself the target of finding a new home.
Lidl stepped forward with the offer of a site adjacent to its planned new store with planning approval applied for in 2017.
Objections to the store proposal and Covid further delayed the project.
With £650,000 in the bank courtesy of donations and the efforts of fundraisers over the past 12 years and formal planning approval now in place, the rescue team’s focus is on raising the £400,000 needed to allow construction work to start.
Rescue team officials say with a real opportunity to get on-site in the not-too-distant future, they desperately need public support to help them plug the funding shortfall.
The preferred option is to raise the funds to complete the build without burdening the team with a significant debt, but the rescue team may have to look at alternative options including securing a loan.
Grant applications are also being applied for.
To make a donation to the appeal visit https://www.mournemrt.org/donate/