You should raise your hat to Mrs. Monnie Clements—but if you haven't got one, she will be only too pleased to provide it. A few months ago Mrs.

Clements, secretary of the Shanklin branch of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, was trying to think up new schemes to raise cash for her adopted chanty. The result of her thoughts and calculations is a hat bank. Mrs. Clements, of Orchard Road, Shanklin, said: 'It suddenly occurred to me that people don't like to buy hats if they can help it.

After all, most of them only wear the hat for one special occasion, and then it is put away and forgotten.

I thought it would be a good idea to get a lot of hats together, and hire them out to people who needed them for one occasion only.' So Mrs. Clements went round to all her friends, and asked them for any hats they no longer needed.

Mr. F. Proctor, of 102 Cuckoo Avenue, Hanwell, London, IV. 7, won a sailing boat during the competition held at the Boat Afloat Show at Little Venice, Paddington, London, in June. The boat was donated by John Baker (Kenton Forge) Ltd., Exeter, Devon, and the competition realised £605 for the Institution.

Mr. Michael Seagar, of the Drip Drop Shop, Abbey Road, Knaresborough, undertook a 'sponsored slim' on behalf of the local guild. Mr. Seagar lost 17 Ib. over eight weeks, and raised £9 for guild funds.

Pupils of William Penn School, Rickmansworth, gathered in the summer to see the results of a sponsored walk they made in May. Miss Rosemary Moses, area organiser for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, was at the school to receive cheques totalling £500 from Allison Newell (13) and Terry Duldwin (12).

Since its inception 10 years ago, the Barry Sutherland Cup competition has raised over £300 for charities connected with the sea. Another £15 was added to the total when the money from last year's Barry Sutherland Cup final was handed over to the Seaham branch of the R.N.L.I. The branch treasurer, Mr. R. Johnson, received the cheque from Joy Patterson at a ceremony in Seaham Westlea Junior School. The money was the result o/ the ticket sales for the final. Murton County Junior School and Dawdon Junior School were the finalists this year andthey produced a close, exciting game which went into extra time but Dawdon eventually won 3-2. East Durham primary school football teams compete annually for the cup which perpetuates the memory of a 12-year-old Seaham schoolboy, Barry Sutherland, who lost his life in 1960 while trying to save a girl from drowning.

On the suggestion of Mrs. D. Hall, a committee member, the Spenborough ladies' life-boat guild is turning waste paper into money for the R.N.L.I.

Members take their old newspapers in tightly packed bundles to Mrs. Hall's home, where they are stored until there is at least half a ton, the minimum weight for collection by a waste paper merchant. For the first two collections the guild has received more than £11.

News reaches us of a scheme involving Skegness life-boat station which is visited by many school children from Lincolnshire. Schools are invited to take part in a competition for a mural about 6 feet by 4 feet depicting a sea theme suitable for display on the wall of the Skegness life-boat station throughout the summer season. This creates a great deal of interest among the school children and is another method ofencouraging young people to give thought to the work of their favourite life-boat station and crew.

Mrs. Myers, of Bright Street, Radcliffe, Lancashire, writes: 'I enclose -£2 for the life-boat funds. This money was raised by my three children and a few friends. During the school holidays they gathered together all their toys, books, games and comics no longer wanted and held a sale. They decided the money raised should go to help the life-boat.