The second annual raft race organised by York branch on the River Ouse was held on a sunny Saturday in July and about 40 entries mustered at the starting point, the Viking Hotel. The Lord Mayor of York and Mayoress judged all entries for the most elegant, and gave the salute on the river. The winning post was at York Motor Yacht Club, which held its annual riverside garden party and barbecue in conjunction with the event, raising £212.17.

Volunteers collected along the river banks and tow paths, and with entry money and sponsorship for rafts the race raised almost £1,500. On the same day an afternoon tea was held in an ancient church in the city centre raising £70, collections were undertaken at the Theatre Royal and, to complete the weekend, Acaster Malbis Boat Club held a sherry morning on board their clubship Heron the following morning.

Colin Bower, one of three brothers in Torbay crew list, designed a commemorative plaque for Torbay naming ceremony on June 17; it depicted Edward Bridges (Civil Service No. 37), the station's new Arun class lifeboat, 54-03. He commissioned a local pottery to make 100 of these plaques and by the evening of June 17 had sold them all for £3 each. Now Colin has presented the RNLI with a cheque for £200, being the profit on the project.

Nearly £900 was raised by a new branch formed only last year, Hakin Point, at its Lifeboat Bazaar in June. So many local clubs, businesses and townspeople joined in to make the day a resounding success that it is only possible here to touch on a fraction of the day's activities. Angle lifeboat with Coxswain Rees Holmes in command and the RAF rescue helicopter from 22 Squadron, Brawdy, gave lifesavingdemonstrations; there was a parade of boats; trips round down the harbour; teas; Milford Haven's Town Band were on parade; and among the goods for sale on the stalls were cooked crabs, kippers, scallop shells, Pembrokeshire 'earlies', home-made cakes, bell-ropes spliced by professional seamen working on the harbour and pottery made by pupils of Milford Haven Central School.

The bazaar was opened by Mrs D. A.

Rice, MBE, president of Milford Haven branch, who was presented, not with the traditional bouquet, but with a large dressed local crab! During the morning of Whitby lifeboat day, July 26, a small girl, Diane Longbottom, walked into the depot, very quietly, and handed over a biscuit tin containing £82 which she had raised by holding a secondhand clothes sale from her home. Not content with this, she helped collect another £12 beforelunch. Her school, Broadgate Primary School, has run a lifeboat project during the year, but this was her personal contribution to Whitby station. Nor was it her first effort: last year she raised £20 for the station.

At a ceremony on board Calshot lifeboat in May, Jim Bailey, a member of the Oxford branch committee, presented Sir Alec Rose with a cheque for £1,022.87 for the Hampshire Rose appeal. Mr Bailey runs Jim Bailey Racing Ltd, Oxford's biggest bookmakers, and it was as a result of his endeavours that a grand charity greyhound race meeting was held at Oxford Stadium on March 7.

The 5th Margate (St James) Brownies collected old newspapers and sold them for salvage, thus raising £12 for Margate branch.

Fred Pitcher, owner of the Family Fish and Greengrocery Shop, Bridport, finds that he cannot sell parsley but that he can give it away. He therefore always has some offered free, with an RNLI collecting box alongside; a request is added: 'Please help yourself, but remember to help the lifeboats.' During the past 12 months he has collected £49.69 for lifeboat funds.

'Dad's Army' was on parade at Bembridge, Isle of Wight, on May 14.

Clive Dunn, Ian Lavender, John Le Mesurier and Bill Pertwee made the passage from Portsmouth in Bembridge lifeboat, Jack Shayler and the Lees, under the command of Coxswain Peter Smith. They were met by a crowd of about 3,000 and were kept busy signing autographs. Demonstrations by inshore and offshore lifeboats and a helicopter from HMS Daedalus were also on the programme. This joint effort by Shanktin and Bembridge raised over £200.Southwell ladies' guild, Nottinghamshire, has recently held a new fundraising venture: an antique valuation evening. Rupert Spencer and Bazil Kemp valued about 80 items; a modest charge related to each item's values was made which, with admissions, raised about £300. To add spice to the occasion, a piece of silverware was discovered to value £2,000.

Tomatin Distillers have presented a cheque for £250 to the Scottish Lifeboat Council for the maintenance of the lifeboat station at Mallaig.

Brecon branch raised £170 during the summer for RNLI funds with a coffee evening held in the historic countryhouse of Trebinshwn near Bwich, the home of its president, Vice-Admiral Sir Dymock Watson, KCB, CBE.

The 'ancient borough of Cowbridge' and district, in the Vale of Glamorgan, has a population of about 2,000; its small, hard-working branch raised no less than £251 in its recent house-tohouse collection.

Gainsborough ladies' guild sold nearly £200 worth of souvenirs at the two-day Lincolnshire Show in June. It was the first time they had taken a stand. When it started to rain they just put on their oilskins and continued in business.

Eleven-year-old Andrew Sylvester of Hull, although he suffers from asthma, completed 30 lengths of the baths in Beverley Road on a sponsored swim, raising £100 for the RNLI. It was his way of saying thank you to the Withernsea ILB which, during the summer of 1974, rescued his 13-year-old sister, Debra, from drowning.

In June last the pupils of Liscard Primary School, Wallasey, Merseyside, held a sponsored silence and a cheque for £20 was fowarded to the Wallasey ladies' guild.

David Willoughby, son of the president of the Whittle-le-Woods branch, is second officer on board MV Manistee owned by Fyffes Group. In support of a coffee morning being organised by his mother, he persuaded the captain to allow him to make a collection from the crew, which amounted to £31.50. None of the crew gave less than £1.

For their part in 'Operation Lifeboat' last October the Scouts of Epsom and Ewell undertook conservation work.

continued on next pageAbout 200 Scouts from Ewell took part in the Hogsmill clearance, clearing some 15-20 trailer loads of rubbish and raising £231. About 120 Scouts from Epsom cleared a large part of Epsom Common of excess scrub, raising £191.

A South Shields Sea Scout Troop raised £100 by holding a sponsored canoeing event over a stretch of the Tyne near their riverside headquarters; over a period of six hours they paddled a total of about 140 miles.

Barry Scout Group raised a fine £820 as their contribution to 'Operation Lifeboat'. Their cheque was presented to Commodore C. A. S. Colburn, QBE, MNI, honorary secretary of Swansea, Mumbles and District branch..