A Welsh Folk Night was held last August at the Royal Pier Pavilion, Aberystwyth, to raise funds for the station's new lifeboat. Soloists, including Helmsman Alan Blair, provided the Welsh flavour but the evening ended with a hilarious can can performed by the lifeboat crew; crew dance training was by Mrs Mari Raw-Rees, a member of the ladies' guild. All this with chicken and chips! A much enjoyed evening raised £200.

When Bushey and Bushey Heath branch sent a cheque for £3,000 to Poole HQ last autumn it included a most generous gift of £2,000 from Mrs F. L.

Tanner of Ruislip to be put towards the cost of a future lifeboat. Portstewart's 1982 annual summer sale of garden produce, gifts and nearly new clothes raised £1,050 for the lifeboats in two hours.

Students of the navigation class at Wigston College, Leicester, preparing to sail their 500 miles 'ocean qualifier' for the RYA yachtmaster's certificate, decided to make it a sponsored sail across the Bay of Biscay in aid of the RNLI. Westwind of Humble, a 38ft cutter, was chartered for the 517 nautical miles voyage from Falmouth to La Coruna, in Spain, followed by a cruise home calling at La Rochelle, La Baule and Cameret; in all 1,386 miles. Eddie Taylor was skipper, Rob Eardley, Alex Mackay, Garry Rigby, Arthur Grant and Timothy Swain were the crew. The weather was good on the outward voyage but gales and high seas were met on the return passage. Back home the crew collected £614 in sponsorship, mostly from their colleagues at work, and presented it to Leicester branch.

Some of the children at Hatchford Primary School, Chelmsley Wood, West Midlands, have never even seen the sea, but after an RNLI film was shown a collection of £10 was made for the lifeboats. Those in class 6, aged from seven to nine, decided that they wanted to make their own special extra effort; they organised a toy sale, selling off all the toys they had outgrown, and they raised JE16.951/!. A further £26.56 was made from a souvenir stall for parents; everybody was delighted and the grand total was presented to Marston Green and District branch.

As if it was not enough for the crew of Stena Seaspread, usually an oil rig support ship in the North Sea, to be occupied with the repair of damaged ships of the Task Force in the South Atlantic, during their tour of duty they also managed to collect the remarkable sum of £270 on board for the RNLI.

Townsend Thoreson ferry Nordic also took RNLI collecting boxes with her to the Falklands—and in all sent back £91 to Felixstowe branch.

Nicholas Morris, bosun of the Portland based Royal Maritime Auxiliary Service tug Typhoon, brought home with him from the Falklands the ensign of the crippled Argentine submarine Santa Fe. He gave it to his father, Lt-Cdr Barney Morris, honorary secretary of Weymouth lifeboat station, who, in turn, gave it to the RN Submarine Museum at HMS Dolphin, Gosport. £100 was donated to the lifeboats. Alexander Cubie, famous as the artist who created Rupert Bear, also paints seascapes. Robert Jardine of Westcliffe Hotel, Girvan, bought two of Mr Cubie's paintings recently and by a gentlemanly agreement it was decided that the paintings were worth £200 and that this amount should be given to the RNLI. The paintings are now on view in the Westcliffe Hotel.

Swimmers from Downsend School and Downsend Lodge, Leatherhead, raised over £1,300 for the RNLI in August. Participants were sponsored for the number of lengths they were able to swim in 20 minutes and with 87 children between the ages of 8 and 13 taking part some very strong swimming must have been seen during the event.

Captain Mellors of Trimley St Martin near Felixstowe encounters generous support for the RNLI both at work and at home. His two daughters, Sarah aged 13, and Julia aged 10, organised a fete at home and raised a remarkable £239,90. Meanwhile on board his ship the sale of soft toys to officers and crew raised an additional £51. The summer sale held on the Fish Quay at Whitby and organised by Whitby ladies' guild lasted five hours and in that short time the remarkable sum of £1.736 was raised.

An exhibition of marine art by amateur artists was organised by Mrs Ida Teuton of Coastguard Studio, Helen's Bay, Northern Ireland. The profit on pictures sold, £302.78, was given to the RNLI.

In November the tiny village branch of Parbold in Lancashire celebrated its tenth anniversary. It has taken this village only that time in which to raise nearly £9.000 for the RNLI.

Kent Police, well known for their enthusiastic support for the RNLI, contributed over £1,000 towards a grand total of £3,500 raised this year at the annual raft race organised by Herne Bay branch. £8,500 was forwarded to headquarters by the branch last year making a total of £21,000 in the past three years, a remarkable contribution from a relatively small town with a population of 25,198. An RNLI official, hurrying to catch train in London one wet and dreary October evening, waved down a taxi— and arrived at his destination much cheered. The taxi driver learning that his passenger was concerned with the lifeboats would not take the tip; instead he made a 50p donation to Institution funds, a generous gesture which was much appreciated.

Runcorn ladies' guild held a Nibble and Noggin evening at the Social Club of the Linnets (Runcorn Football Club) last autumn which raised a magnificent £455. For £1.50 a head about 200 people enjoyed pate (mostly homemade), salads, cheese and wine. As well as raffles and the sale of RNLI souvenirs, there were games of darts and indoor putting and, for the last hour of the evening, dancing.

Michael Porter and Ken Smith decided to organise a joint exercise in fund raising and lifesaving at Hunstanton.

They put to sea in a small rubber dinghy in front of a beach crowded with holidaymakers then let off a distress flare. Nobody except the lifeboat crew knew that this was a staged distress and therefore as the lifeboat launched and raced to the rescue, holidaymakers were given an impressive display by the Atlantic 21 crew. The two men in the dinghy had been sponsored to the tune of £86 and a further £28 was collected by Mr Porter's daughter, Fiona, from spectators on the beach.

The Clifton Arms Hotel, Lytham, was the setting last October for a Fur and Fashion Spectacular presented by Malcolm and Sandra Jaffa for St Annes ladies guild. The audience were delighted with the magnificent display of fur cape coats, coats and jackets, and also a display of beautiful matching co-ordinates for both day and cocktail wear. The mannequins were all professional. It was a night to remember and, including a raffle which brought in £118, it raised £500 for the lifeboats. Mr Jaffa of Gladys Whitaker, Queen Street, Blackpool, would be willing to put on fashion shows to raise funds in other parts of the North West.

Longridge and District branch has had a successful year for fund-raising.

Its house-to-house collection brought in £1,000; the local darts league ran a raffle and the clay pigeon shooting club held its charity shoot in aid of the RNLI, making £433. On Midsummer's Day a cabaret supper was organised with the amateur theatrical society RATS from Roman Ribchester which put on a musical show; the capacity audience had a great time and contributed a further £365. £2,000 was sent to RNLI headquarters at the end of the year.

A private luncheon party given in the Royal Ulster Yacht club, Bangor, by Mrs George Ralston and friends raised over £600 for the RNLI. Shaftesbury branch has recently used a novel and effective way of making the most out of a painting presented to them by Mr and Mrs B. W Brickell. of their local Weymouth lifeboat. The painting, by John Lee, was put on display in the window of the Shaftesbury branch of the Leicester Building Society and passers by were invited to telephone in the amount that they were prepared to pay for the painting. The highest bidder was Ken Harris of Swindon who offered £75 and he was duly handed the painting.

The RNLI enjoys considerable support from the various building societies around the country particularly on a local basis. Recently at the Dorchester Agricultural Show, Dorchester branch of the London and South of England Building Society organised a balloon race which raised £53.68 for Dorchester RNLI branch.

Ightham and District branch, consisting of 17 small rural villages in the heart of Kent, has continued support for the RNLI over the past 20 years. Each village, besides holding its annual house-to-house collections, also organises a social event bi-annually, so that every month funds are being raised.

Last year the branch raised more than £3,200.

Four men from Dover, Dave Skelton, Brian Phipps, Martin Vaughan and Neil Vaughan, who ran in the London Marathon contributed the grand sum of £463 to Dover station branch.

In June the organisation CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) held a Grand National Breweriana Auction at The Clarendon Hotel, Hammersmith, London.

Items on sale included commemorative beer bottles, mats and bar towels, beer engines, glasses and trays and even old pub signs. Half the proceeds, £454.05, were presented to the RNLI.

A class of six to seven-year-old children at Malvern Link Infants School started collecting used postage stamps for the RNLI in September 1980. Remarkably each one is counted and since then 113,600 stamps have been collected.

In the last school year alone 52,602 were amassed.

Glenkens lifeboat guild, Kirkcudbrightshire, held its annual fund raising event in two halves last year. There was tea from 2 o'clock until 4 o'clock, then coffee from 7 o'clock to 9 o'clock.

There were raffles and side shows including an impressive display of locally worked embroidery and also a graphic representation of the local railway line.

Visitors placed coins on the track, occasionally winning a prize if their coin was put on a lucky space. The railway raised £20 and overall £379 was made on the day. Jim Clarke is a West Mersea lifeboat helmsman, his wife Lily is vice-chairman of the ladies' guild; their son Stuart is obviously an original thinker when it comes to devising ways of raising money for the RNLI. His idea was a sponsored crab hunt which duly took place with 36 children competing and £100 eventually being raised. Chief crab catcher turned out to be Thera Green who managed to haul in no less than 27. Three children shared the prize for the biggest crab caught which was 7cm. A bit small for eating, and the day's catch was returned to the sea when the hunt was all over.

At Epsom and Ewell Swimming Club's September Gala Mr H. Sayer, honorary secretary of Epsom and District branch, was given a cheque for £363; it had been raised by a sponsored swim and brought the amount raised for the lifeboats by this club in the past eight years to £2,270. The branch also held a ploughman's lunch in October which raised a further £407.

Because his wife was ill Don Robinson could not leave his greengrocery business during Brighton's lifeboat day.

Instead he set up a souvenir stall in the forecourt of his shop complete with collecting boxes. His customers couldn't fail to notice it was lifeboat day and he made £49.75 as a result.

Donaghadee ladies' guild doubled its 1981 total with its 1982 flag day and cake fair, raising £775.

Secondhand books have for many years been very useful money earners for the RNLI. Bob Smith, licensee of the Travellers Call, Great Moor, Stockport, knows this well and in his pub since 1975, through selling books to his customers and from collecting boxes, he has raised £1,000. He is also a very generous personal contributor to the RNLI and proudly displays an RNLI plaque on the wall of his bar. An evening of Gilbert and Sullivan: £250. A nearly new sale of clothes: £362.95. A sausage sizzle: £107.84. Flag day: £1,205.74. An auction: £700. A sherry party at the home of Mr and Mrs Bryan Vernon: £136.62. These are a selection of the varied and lucrative fund-raising events of West Wight ladies guild in recent months..