Bodmin Lower School (Comprehensive), which is particularly interested in Padstow lifeboat, arranged a sponsored tables contest—the 2 x 2 = 4 kind—in aid of the RNLI just before Christmas. Younger children had to learn tables up to 10 x 12 and older children up to 12 x 12, plus the square of numbers 13 to 20. Each pupil was sponsored for correct answers up to 25 questions, selected by the headmaster, A. J. Harbinson. Lifeboat films were shown and questions about the service answered by two members of Bodmin and District branch. A splendid, progressive idea which increased knowledge of arithmetic and lifeboats—and RNLI funds by £75.08.

Fund-raisers in the Republic of Ireland improved their total by 29 per cent in 1976. Of Dublin's £24,250 (£1,650 more than in 1975), £10,000 resulted from the annual sale of work organised by Mrs Montague Kavanagh and her helpers together with the achievements of the Lifeboat Shop in Baggot Street. The cup for the best Dublin flag seller was won by Coxswain G. McLoughlin of Howth.

More than £30,000 has already been donated to Yarmouth lifeboat appeal, the money coming from far and near.

Through the good offices of E. Lennie, landlord of the White Hart Inn, Havenstreet, Isle of Wight, the Rotary Club of Chateau du Loir, France, has donated Fr.65; branches in North West Wiltshire joined together for an Elizabethan Feste and Revels at Lacock Abbey on June 18, raising £700.59; North West Bournemouth branch's Christmas draw brought in another £159 . . . and so the story goes on. ...Mrs N. Richards, flag day organiser at Dolgellau and a member of Barmouth ladies' guild, starting with a float of £100 early in 1976, visited many sales purchasing job lots of bric-a-brac; she also obtained gifts of small antiques from her friends. In June she opened a shop in Dolgellau to sell these goods, and, as a result, was able to hand over a • net profit of £460 to the guild.

Winchester branch has received £37.45 from a former committee member, Mrs Martineau. It was collected in a box by her private swimming pool.

At a commemorative dinner and dance which followed the presentation of the 150th anniversary vellum to Blyth lifeboat station by P. Denham Christie, a member of the Committee of Management, on September 16, 1976, the dance floor was cleared, a bottle of whisky placed upon it and guests invited to slide lOp pieces as close to the bottle as possible from a set mark, the nearest being the winner.

£15 was raised in ten minutes.

Marjorie is one of three Thames barges owned by Albert Groom, a vicepresident of Canvey Island branch.

Built in 1902 at Ipswich, in her working years she crossed regularly to the continent with cargoes of grain and flour. In 1965 she won the Blackwater barge match and, with members of Canvey Island branch on board, won her class in the barge match at the 1975 Port of London Authority Centenary Clipper Regatta. Between August and October 1976, Mr Groom welcomed 3,500 people aboard Marjorie and, helped by Bernard Griffith, branch honorary secretary, and committee member Sam Jeffries, showed them over the barge. A voluntary collection raised £320 for the RNLI.

With about 60 members, the social club of Lion Packing Works, Woking, has collected £250 in its RNLI box in less than three years. Its 1976 target, £100, was passed in ten months. All halfpenny change at the bar and all small change emptied out of pockets at the end of the evening are put into thebox. Jack Grant, son of a lifeboatman, heads a small group of enthusiasts which fines all who are not wearing their club badges lOp. Raffles and sweeps are organised as well as a darts competition at lOp a throw.

Before Christmas, in just over a month, £71.05 was raised by Winton Junior School for lifeboat funds by means of a mechanical collecting box, selling souvenirs and the results of 30 school projects.

The Scout Association of Ireland (Cub Scout Section) celebrated its diamond jubilee by raising £2,000 to offset the cost of a new ILB. The cheque was presented to Philip Mahony, RNLI assistant national organiser, Ireland, by 10-year-old Hugh Butler at a dinner to mark the culmination of the Cub Scouts' jubilee year on November 27 in Dublin Sport Hotel.

Jim Mead, whose father and grandfather had both served on Appledore branch committee, wanted to carry on the family tradition in his own area of Molesey. With the help of Mrs Griffiths, flag day organiser, and other Molesey people a branch was formed and, with a wide variety of events and a vigorous Shoreline recruiting campaign, over £1,500 was raised in the first year.Between 1963 and 1975, the late Commander J. H. Bowen and his wife raised £3,265.24 for the lifeboat service by collecting coins in the well of 'Fleursec' at Corfe Castle in the Isle of Purbeck. Sadly, Cdr Bowen died in July 1975, but Mrs Bowen has continued the good work, and in 1976 handed over £301.15 to Swanage branch.

Michael Moore and Lawrence Deakin organised a marathon disco which lasted 34 hours. The profit, £126.83, was given to Newhaven lifeboat station.Stafford branch receives welcome help from the local Association of Wrens; as well as making an annual donation of £25, a good number of the association's members collect regularly for the RNLI on flag days. Stafford has also raised £30 from unwanted foreign coins collected in banks and travel agencies.

Mrs Lucy L. Jack, wife of ex- Coxswain James Jack of Anstruther, has raised £1,173 by dressing dolls for raffles; 60 dolls in all, some of them in full rig as lifeboatmen.

The 350 boys and girls of Yarner House, Audley Park School, Torquay, have adopted Torbay lifeboat. Last term they raised £50, mostly by selling hot Cornish pasties and soup at lunch time to other pupils, and they hope to do even better in the spring term. The Torquay Hotels Association has presented this lifeboat with a fire pump costing £875.Mrs E. D. M. Harkness of Coatbridge has a positive approach to forgetfulness.

She teaches mathematics and any child who forgets such essentials as book, pencil or mathematical instruments pays Ip fine to borrow from her.

When a reasonable amount has been collected, the money is sent to a charity of the children's choice. Mrs Harkness was delighted when they decided recently to send £8 to the RNLI.

After a procession through Cambridge arranged by Oliver Rix Garages and Cambridge Granta Round Table, Paul Holt, general manager of Oliver Rix Garages donated a cheque for £200 to the Round Table lifeboat appeal.Three 10-year-old class mates of Willows Primary School, Timperley, Christopher Morgan, whose parents are members of the branch committee, Lisa Waterworth and Simon Ennion, raised £2.70 for branch funds carol singing one December evening.

Longridge and District branch combined fund raising with a much enjoyed evening last autumn when they arranged a dinner, whist and domino drive in the new village hall at Whitechapel. A four-course meal (soup, roast beef, country fresh cream trifles made by the ladies and, of course, Lancashire cheese and biscuits) was served to 130 people, who then settled down to play for some very acceptable prizes. £201 was raised for the RNLI.

Birmingham area's contributions to the RNLI increased by £5,813 in 1976.

Readers of Birmingham Evening Mail, through an appeal by its assistant editor, Clem Lewis, donated £2,091 which will fund a new replacement ILB for Exmouth.

Terry Wiffen, one of the City of London's excellent young helpers, has raised £235.36 by selling waste paper.

It has meant hours of hard work, picking up bundles all over the City and in his own home town of Upminster.

Four fishermen of Tottenham and Edmonton, Paul Allsey, Reg Laws and Frank and Martin Drury, raised more than £300 for the Institution with their sponsored 'Shark Hunt '76' off Padstow.

Among their sponsors were Bing Crosby, Bruce Forsyth, Leslie Crowther, Jack Parnell and his band and the entire cast of ATV's General Hospital.

University of Bristol Rag Committee presented the RNLI with £490.86 in 1976.

Lochwinnoch ladies' guild held a 'Mad Hatter's Hop' last spring at which Tony Currie of Radio Clyde judged the 'mad' hats. Ten guild members had prepared the supper served during the evening and just over £700 was raised for the RNLI. Prior to that 34 guild members, in a 'double your money' project, were each given 50p and asked to make as much money as possible: the result, a profit of £146.94..