Optimus Assist With The Rescue Mission

Staff have the opportunity to nominate a charity every couple of months with money then raised for the particular charity. SARDA was nominated by Gill Crebbin, Operation and Support Officer of our Malta Office, with the cheque being accepted by Malcolm Stewart, a navigator and Jim MacGregor who handles Ruby, a 15 month year old German Wired Pointer.

“Having volunteered and worked alongside the SARDA team during my last 5 years on the Island, I witnessed the dedication that these volunteers have to helping people at their time of need, so I’m really pleased that as a firm, we have been able to contribute to all the great work they do”, said Gill, “especially on the Island, with lots of open space, time is of the essence when people are missing and search teams can be assisted by a dog’s ability to cover large areas of land very quickly.”

SARDA is a locally registered Manx Charity and assists with searching for missing persons in large areas of land. This can often be at night which can be a slow and difficult undertaking, so the charity provides the search teams with training, specialist equipment and day to day requirements.

“We are delighted and very grateful to receive this donation from Optimus - as a charity run fully by volunteers, every single penny received by donations makes a huge difference”, said Jim, “Ruby for example, she is currently being trained to be a scent specific rescue dog and once complete, will be able to track a missing person by picking up their scent, which she would be given to smell e.g a pillow case.”

’Optimus In the Community’ continues to encourage staff to get involved and to give something back to the community and charity. Last year saw staff donate over £2000 to charities as well as volunteering at the Home of Rest for Old Horses with their annual Christmas Experience Event.