By giving a few dollars a week out of their pay packets, staff at Koppers Newcastle plant are doing their bit to keep Westpac Rescue Helicopter Service in the air.

Koppers Plant Manager, Nick Moretti ,andPlantOperator, Joshua Merlo visited the serviceat Broadmeadow recently to mark five years since the workplace giving partnership started.

Over the five years, Koppers staff have donated $25,000.

Westpac Rescue Helicopter Service CEO, Richard Jones OAM, said with most face to face fundraising and major event activity on hold as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, workplace giving donations are extremely important in helping the helicopter service to save local lives across Northern NSW.

“We know that donation support may be difficult for many in our community at this time, so we are really grateful to Koppers staff for their continued support,” Richard said.

“Koppers is a great example of a workplace that has set up a charity workplace giving program enabling staff to make a salary sacrifice of as little as one or two dollars each pay.

“Right across our service region, it makes an incredible difference to our life saving work.”

Nick said the visit was a great opportunity for him and Joshua to see how Koppers staff donations make a difference to helping the helicopter service to save lives.

“You get to see all the work that goes on behind the scenes in terms of planning, equipment, maintenance, and training–that all has to be funded,” Nick said.

Koppers support for the service extends beyond workplace giving. In 2018, staff at its Grafton plant donated the $4,000 they received for winning Koppers’ global safety prize to the service.

“Giving back to the community has long been a Koppers tradition,” Nick said.

“As well as contributing to local jobs and economies, we try to be a responsible neighbour and support the causes that are most important to local community needs.”

This year Koppers and its staff, with support fromtheir US colleagues, also donated $40,000 to bushfire relief, Koppers has alsosupported other charities, community organisations, and local schools.

Nick said that himand his staff are fortunate in that whilst the pandemic has impacted Koppers, it has been able to keep everyone employed, with no reduction in hours.

Every year on average the Westpac Rescue Helicopter Service flies more than 1,500 missions, including responding to emergency Triple 0 calls, inter-hospital transfers and search and rescue.