A West Cumbrian young farmers group is getting ready to pull a replica helicopter 77 miles for charity.
Drigg Young Farmers will pull the replica – modelled on the Great North Air Ambulance helicopter – from Drigg to Langwathby on July 19 and 20 to raise funds for the life-saving charity.
The helicopter has been made by one of the group’s advisory members, Ian, who spent around four months transforming a car using a range of materials and paint into a replica air ambulance.
Rosie Pratt, 21, chair of the young farmers group, said: “We have a very creative advisory member who builds all sorts so he sourced a car and made plans to build a replica helicopter around it using fibreglass, wood and metal.
“He attached everything onto it so now we can push and pull it and it’s all painted up with logos and designs on, it looks exactly like a helicopter.
“But he started the project in January and we had the reveal and showed it to all of our members last week.
@wellytheheli Tonight Drigg YFC finally got to meet 💚#wellytheheli🤍 ♬ Montagem Coral 1.0 (Ultra Slowed) – SHADXWLXRD
“Everyone is absolutely buzzing about it and the younger ones are really keen because they’ve never done anything like it before.
“I know a lot of the community are excited to see it happen as well.”
The cost to source, transport and transform the car into a replica helicopter were supported by the Fawcett families, Colin W Parker Ltd Haulage, Holt motorcycles and Thomas Graham & Sons.
Rosie said the group is hoping to see over 50 people take part in the pull with ages ranging from 10 years old-plus.
She added that the club’s decision to choose the Great North Air Ambulance Service came from seeing how the service had helped loved ones and friends over the years.
She said: “This year it’s my year as chairman and we went through at the start of year what we wanted to do as a club in a committee meeting.
“We decided that it’s been a while since the club has done a big fundraiser because we’ve done big things in the past like a tractor push from Broughton to Whitehaven, so we wanted to do something else like that.
“It was a lot of the younger members who said they wanted to do something for the Great North Air Ambulance in the first place.
“But we know a lot of people who have used the service throughout their lives for many different reasons and we just thought it was a good way to give back to the service which needs funds because they don’t get anything from the Government.”
The club has already raised over £4,000 for the charity so far through community events and it is hoping to raise over £10,000 through the replica helicopter pull, a tractor run and more.
Rosie said: “We’ve had a muck haul where we delivered muck to the residents of Gosforth and Seascale and we raised over £2,000 through that and we’ve had an afternoon tea and helicopter style beetle drive as well.
“We’ve also got a tractor run coming up and a race night and auction night coming up as well to keep topping up the funds.”
To donate to the Welly the Helli challenge, email [email protected]
