DARTMOOR Search and Rescue Team (DSRT) Tavistock is making an unusual request to the retail community.

The team is looking for a mannequin to help with displaying its equipment at the various events it attends and is hoping that a shop owner may have one they may be willing to donate.

Josephine Collingwood, a member of DSRT Tavistock, said: ‘We need a mannequin. We are hoping that a shop owner may have one spare that is a bit weary and no longer fit for display, but mostly still in one piece.

‘If they would like to donate it to the Tavistock DSRT team, it would have a new lease of life raising awareness of our work and providing a bit of fun for our forthcoming 50th anniversary celebrations next year.

‘We would use it for displaying our Swift Water Rescue kit as a free-standing “person” at events and fundraisers, but we also have an idea for a series of photographs depicting a character — for example the mannequin dressed in the water kit — in different locations and activities all over the moor. We’d do a social media feed, for example #whereismandy? — or another name — getting people to name the location and tors etc.

‘It would be an ongoing awareness campaign for our 50th anniversary celebration in 2018, for which we are planning a series of big events.’

Josephine said that this was the idea, but in the first instance a mannequin would be useful just for displaying the water kit. She said the team struggled to show the full scale of its work and the amount of kit it has to buy and maintain.

Anyone who thinks they may be able to help can contact Josephine on 01822 860577.