KARA

Jim's Stores. Welcome to 'Jim's Stores' where members will find details of all the merchandise on offer, from warm fleeces to Polo Shirts, ties, pin badges and car windscreen badges. * Manager Gwen Tring. *Please note that only Retired Members of the NHS Ambulance Service are allowed to wear the Crown Badge *Please note that all prices are subject to change. KARA Fleeces, Polo Shirts & T Shirts  Pricing and ordering details are as follows: *Fleeces Shirts etc now only available in Blue (Dark) Fleeces that members have ordered to date are the Premium ones priced at £18 up to 2XL, 3XL on £ 18.50. Polo Shirts , size up to 2XL priced £10, size 3XL priced £10.50. T Shirts priced £7.50. 3XL ^ £8.00. All priced include the embroidery. Caps priced £7. KARA Ties  These good quality ties, with the new crown badge, as shown above, are available at £8. KARA Ladies Fashion Items for the ladies are available. KARA Blazer Badges Please speak to Gwen regarding the purchase of Blazer badges.  KARA Badges, Key Fobs, Car Windscreen Badges & the NHS Ambulances Book  We now have in the store: Car Windscreen Badges ; they are 7cm x 4.5cm and only £1. Association Lapel Badges £2 Association Keg Fobs £0.40 Books NHS Ambulances ' the first 25 years'. An illustrated history of ambulance vehicles during the first 25 years of the National Health Service. Published by Trans Pennine at £5.99; Price to Association Members £5. The above are available for purchase or order from Gwen at Member Meetings

KARA - The beginings of the Retirement Association By Barry Barnsley During the latter part of 1992 I was at Ashford Ambulance Station with the then Chief Ambulance Officer who was presenting long service/good conduct medals to staff. After the presentations he was approached by Murray 'Badger' Swift and Bert Leadbetter who asked him whether it was possible for a retirement association to be set up. Mr Robinson subsequently spoke to me and asked me to research whether there was any interest in such an idea. I then visited the Personnel Department at Headquarters in Coxheath and obtained the names and addresses of all members of staff who had retired either through ill health or age during the past 15 years. I then designed a questionaire which was circulated to all known retirees and whilst a number were not returned, I guess due to either changes of address or circumstances, a significant number were returned with the vast majority in favour of the idea. KARA subsequently started in 1993 with John Hart as President and Bob Smith as Chairman. Embroidery by Mrs M.J. Ludlow Please, please look out those Old Photographs & Documents... We need your help! We want more old and newer photographs. Can you help? If you have any photo's of stations, vehicles, ambulance related and especially of those of our ambulance service staff; plus any documents. Please rifle through your drawers, boxes in your attic, in the bottom of your wardrobe. If you find some we would be grateful for them or to copy them for KARA's Collection. We are especially in need of some photographs of Staff, Stations - events and Vehicles of Dartford, Northfleet and Maidstone Help us to save your history... Please contact any member of the committee if your search is fruitful. Thanks *Note. Two more envelopes full of photo's have been handed into Coxheath Reception for us - Thanks to the receptionists for looking out for us. Members Book an Archive for KARA Members John Wye January 2019 Members Book The Members Book is an archive register for members in which the members name, locations of service (abbreviated), length of service - year to year, membership year to year and current membership status is registered. Although we have filled in some of the 'blank spaces' in the book, some of the information in relation to our past members is still proving difficult to find. If you can help fill in the blanks, please let us know. Members Book - Part Two Personal Photo and Story Entry of a personal photograph and your story to fit on a A4 sheet. (Av. 500 words.) Suggestions as to what you may wish to include; where you were born, your childhood, your schooling, work or service before and after ambulance service, service highlights, after retirement, notable events, and don't forget to mention your partner. To date I am still working on previous member stories as there has been little response from current members. If your not keen on giving us your story at least make sure we have a photo or two of you in the archive. A copy of the latest edition of the 'Members Book' is available to view at Social Meetings. If it is not out on the tables - please ask if you wish to view.

KARA Photo gallery * Hover over photograph for description. Click on to view enlarged & move on left < and right >.

Spotlight on 'Service Vehicles' Here are a few randomly selected photographs from the archive! Have you any photographs to donate? ASV3-Interior of KCC's New Ambulances ASV38EHA150001 ASV39EHA16 ASV40EHA17 ASV78EHC22 Apr1992 ASV47EHA29 ASV7-Saloon of Hanlon Ambulance ASV93EHD87 Aug1995 ASV97EHD106 May2000 File 07-08-2017, 18 32 13

News SASA SASA are having their annual reunion for 2025 I t might seem a long way away but people have booked up very quickly this year. In fact, we have 60 attending so far. There are only 23 spaces remaining should you like to book for the weekend. The Hotel has had a fabulous refit and upgrade with excellent facilities. Please follow the link to read a detailed letter from Carol Burgess which details all the facilities, room types, costs etc. Plus the booking form to download. View and Download Membership Status Membership currently stands at 124 Members and 39 Associate Members. Total membership of 163 John Wye - September 2024 Very Important Reminder... Especially at this time! Have you moved house, changed your telephone number, landline or mobile? Or your e-mail address? Or any of your membership details? And if your on your own the details of a contact , family member or friend. Any changes please let us know, so that we can update our/your records and remain in contact with you. Also remember to keep your membership card safe and if you lose it let us know immediately.

KARA Committee Chairperson..... Currently vacant This could be you! Chairmans Messages and E-News The Chairman now gives his messages via the E-Newsletters, Publication dates & Edition numbers shown on the Calendar. With E-News Extra's in-between as/if required. If you have any news articles which you would like published in the E-Newsletter please send them to the KARA Secretary or Chairman. Those members who do not have email addresses (consented ), will be sent copies via post. Copies of Minutes Copies of the full Minutes may be requested by Members, by applying to the Secretary. They can also be viewed at Social Meetings on request. President - Ken Smith Committee Members 2024 /2025 TERM Officers Chairman - Vacancy Vice Chairman - Vacancy Secretary - John Wye Treasurer - Chantal Hutty Our Committee Ken Davies Gwen Tring Graham Ruck Barry Holmes Annette Davies Duff Robinson E-Newsletter Editor - John Wye Website Editor - Barry Holmes Committee Meetings - Meetings dates are published on the home page. Venue: Lenham (Unless stated otherwise) SECAmb Meeting of Associations - Meeting: TBC Venue: Crawley TBC (Unless stated otherwise)

Member - Social Meetings 2024 /2025 Don't forget to pencil in the proposed dates of our Social Meetings for 2024/2025 (Updates listed in your E-News) These are held at the Lenham Community Centre at Lenham. Come along and join in, have a chat with old and new colleagues and enjoy the buffet lunch provided and our Guest Speakers. All social meeting & AGM times are 1030 for 1100 start. Refreshments are available on arrival and a buffet lunch is provided. Eric Hartland on Historic Images of Kent At Novembers social meeting Eric Hartland presented old images of locations around Kent and up to date photographs taken from the same spot, well almost, as some spots would have been a bit dangerous. The project that Eric is involved with, is the Kent Photo Archive, a project between the Maidstone Museum and Maidstone Camera Club. The website currently contains over 1000 archive images. Croatia - Here we come! At February's meeting Frank Stocks stepped in to give us a talk about a Charity Road Trip to Croatia with a load of Medical Supplies. Having collected the supplies and arranged for a vehicle to convey them. The team comprising of Frank, Barry Holmes and Dave Ogilvie left on the 11th March 1993. They left giving themselves six days to do the round trip; it took seven, sometimes perilous journey including cold and snow to deliver them; one of their nights spent in the van, in which they learned they could have frozen to death. They had left Ramsgate on the Sally line on a route which took them through France, Germany and Austria to an area, Rijeka in the (Republike Bosne I Hercegovina ) Croatia. The facility that they were delivering to, as was fate, they were desperately in need of some of the drugs and medical supplies they had on board. Could you give us a 'talk' on your experiences? Brief History of Flags John Wye gave a presentation, 'A brief history of Flags, which was well received at the April 2018 Social meeting. Could you give us a presentation?

Your Call - Newsletter for SECAmb Members SECAmb NEWS Latest Headlines on SECAmb Website Please see SECAmb Website for latest updates and articles in your E-News Public Trust Board Meetings Next Trust Board meeting is on TBC Following meetings; TBC Public Council Meetings Next Council Meeting -See SECAmb website for latest regarding meetings. Public Governor for Kent & Lead Governor, James Crawley Public Governor for Kent, David Escudier Public Governor for Kent, Roger Laxton To read the full stories, and for further information log into: www.secamb.nhs.uk

Click the Button >>>>>>>> for the Latest E News no30 Important, Please read and action! DEAR MEMBERS We have reached the point in time where although we have a current membership of over 100, we do not appear to have the support necessary to continue to function as we should for much longer. It would be a great shame if we have to close after over 30 years of existence. We have for over a year now been without a Chairman, Vice President and some committee members, putting extra pressure on all those who do serve for all your benefits. Also, we have reached the point where there are very few KENT AMBULANCE SERVICE staff left to retire from the Service so there are not likely to be many more joining us. Other Retirement Associations have re-named themselves as SOCIAL Associations to enable any Ambulance staff to join Therefore, as your committee we put the following questions to you to steer us into the future or to maybe closure. It is up to us all to respond and action but we do appreciate that there are Members that are not in the best of health and are unable to assist but their views still matter. If you are using the ipad/iphone safari browser, then unfortunately the link to the survey will not work (Thank you Apple!) However if you want to use a better and faster browser, which will work! Then just go to the appstore and download Chrome And start the Kara web page from there....😃 Please click the button which will take you to a simple suvey that should take no more than 5 mins to complete..... as stated above this is about YOUR Associations continuation! The Survey Welcome to the KARA Website This site has been set up for the benefit of members of the Kent Ambulance Retirement Association. It is being developed to offer another way of viewing and receiving news from the association, particularly for those who are unable to get along to member meetings and our members living out of the county and in far off places. As you can see above we have pages which will include, messages from the Chairman and Reports, Committee Members, News, Annual and one off events, Jim,s Stores and Photo Galleries. Design updates and changes will be undertaken as required. Each time the site is updated, however minor, the date will be registered at the top of this page, so keep logging in to keep in touch with KARA We would welcome comments from members regarding this website, please send them to the web editor, contact details can be found in editions of your newsletter. The site has been developed to compliment the' KARA E-News' which members will receive as usual and articles for this should still be sent to the E-News Editor, whose contact details are published in the E-news. Due to EU regulations we have added a 'Use of Cookies' notification which you will only see on your first visit to the website. SECAMB SUPPORTS ITS FOUR RETIREMENT ASSOCIATIONS All four previous ambulance areas; Kent, East & West Sussex and Surrey each have their own associations all of which are actively supported by South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Trust. Personnel can join any association and move from one to another; they can pick up a leaflet at any location of work. Page Content Home Welcome Latest 'E News' Focus Retirement Associations KARA Meetings and Events Bring back Memories History KARA Archives Members Book Committee Your Committee Members Chairman's Chat SECAmb News See llatest E-News or SECamb Website for latest information News E-Newsletter Social Meetings 2024/25 Meetings Past Presentations Events Fishing Competitions Christmas Lunch Spotlight Spotlight on Service Vehicles Gallery Christmas Lunch 2019 Alan Vine 90 March 2020 *Some pages will be hidden when not required. Meetings & Events ***** All social and committee meetings are 1030 for 1100 start***** Click on an event for more detail and you can add it to your own calendar Bring back memories! Ambulance vehicles both past and present, which will bring back some memories for you? Kent Welfare Ambulance Trojan Ambulances Bedford K fleet 1952 with two Austen Lomas 1948 and Martin Walter Bedford SCC Bedford K SCC Bedford K and crew Bedford J1 white livery leaving Southborough Ambulance Stn Converted Bedford Service Van Ford Transit with Land Rover Support Unit Ford Transit with Pararmedic Unit markings Mercedes Ambulance Mercedes Ambulances lined up at Make Ready Station Welfare Ambulance.jpg Kent Welfare ambulance; apparently very useful during floods. Trojan Ambulances.jpg Made+Ready+vehicles.jpg Mercedes Vehicles lined up at Make Ready Station Welfare Ambulance.jpg Kent Welfare ambulance; apparently very useful during floods. 1/12 These are a selection from the KARA Archives - Copyright