ON MAY 8, 1975, at the RNLI annual meeting held in the Royal Festival Hall, London, a cheque for £91,363.72 was handed over by four young members of The Scout Association (see page 21) to cover funds raised for the lifeboat service during one of the largest national projects ever undertaken by Scouts.

Money was still coming in and the figure has now passed £93,000.

Code-named 'Operation Lifeboat', this money-raising effort involved practically the whole of the United Kingdom's 200,000-strong Scout section.

The idea for a national Scout 'good turn' was first discussed in 1972 at the National Scout Board Conference. [It had by then been considered by the RNLI's 1974 Working Party at the suggestion of one of its members, Norman Crumbie.—Editor]. The following spring, at the Assistant County Commissioners' Conference held in Liverpool it was suggested that perhaps some form of activity could be undertaken to coincide with the RNLI's 150th Anniversary celebrations due to take place in 1974.

From the various proposals put forward at this meeting 'Operation Lifeboat' emerged: a weekend of fundraising activities to be carried out by Scouts, the proceeds of which would enable the RNLI to purchase a new lifeboat to add to its fleet of rescuecraft. A date was set: October 5 and 6, 1974. The exact form that the activities should take was left to the discretion of individual Scout Counties, Districts and Groups.

Shortly after this, the Movement's own magazine, Scouting, carried news of the project and with the help of Assistant County and District Commissioners (Scouts) the story broke through to local level. Everywhere Scouts responded with tremendous zeal.

Soon reports were filtering in ofyoungsters who intended to take part in sponsored canoe races, litter clearances, sponsored swims, Scout variety shows...

and even sponsored silences! The weekend of October 5 and 6 saw Britain's Scouts out in force. Hundreds of Harrow Scouts organised a sponsored walk around Harrow Hill in Middlesex to raise money for the appeal (incidentally, a total of £2,500 was gained through their particular efforts); Scouts from the Blackpool District took part in sponsored conservation work in Beacon Fell country park, raising over £1,000 for the fund.

More than £600 was contributed by a group of Scottish Scouts from the Forres and Kinloss District in Moray who towed a salmon cobble from Findhorn to Forres, a journey of some 10 miles; Scouts in Blackburn released 5,500 balloons in a sponsored balloon race held in the town—one balloon soared 1,300 miles to Gibraltar winning first prize in the race for its owner; Scouts from a local Bangor Troop in North Wales took part in a sponsored hill walk, and while a group of Wiltshire Scouts were engaged in a sponsored cleaning session of the Devizes stretch of the Kennett and Avon Canal they recovered a haul of silver-plated cutlery thought to be the proceeds of a burglary —their 'good turn' for the RNLI resulted in an additional 'good turn' for local police!—MAUREEN WEST, The Scout Association..