Concerted efforts Worcester guild has a particular talent for turning musical notes into pound notes. In May 1984 a concert given by Scottish baritone, Peter Morrison, in conjunction with the Hereford Police Choir, raised £362.25, while in December last year a performance by Moira Anderson made a further £1,024. Both concerts were held at the College Hall, Worcester.

Two musical events of a slightly different tone helped Shefford and District guild have a successful year in 1984. A musical evening in February and an Old Tyme Music Hall in November, together with coffee mornings, fetes and their flag day, raised £985.

The pupils of Nutfield Priory School for Deaf Children decided to make the RNLI their Christmas charity by giving a carol concert and showing lifeboat films. The head boy and girl were able to hand over £100 as a result to Reigate and Redhill branch president, Carl Seager.

£1,500 of the total branch income of £10,000 for 1984 has come from local schools.

Scilly season Some very original ways of raising money were reported at the 1984 AGM of The Isles of Scilly ladies' lifeboat guild. There was the plate sale run by Mrs Helga Williams who had collected a varied selection of wall plates including one donated by the guild's president, Lady Wilson, which had been specially designed for her when she lived at No 10, Downing Street. The sale made £277. Mrs Williams also sells bulbs, flowers and plants outside her home, collecting the proceeds in a large bottle; the total raised to date is £1,084. Mrs Dorothy Fender who lives on the 'off island' of Bryher, not only collects from the 60 inhabitants on flag day, she rows out to visiting yachts moored in the channel and asks them to contribute! Her efforts for the year, which included a coffee morning and souvenir sales, brought in £1,887.

Making a meal of it All aboard for breakfast! A captain's breakfast on board the Sealink flagship, St Nicholas, was organised last November to raise funds for Harwich branch.

Roy Thompson is a steward on board St Nicholas and during the breakfast his wife Christine presented a cheque for £80 to branch president Jim Davis. Mrs Thompson had raised the money by running in the London marathon, sponsored by her husband's colleagues.

Harwich ladies guild have also been cooking up profits with a Christmas supper for over 100 people. Their hard work preparing and serving the food was rewarded with an impressive £426.

A luncheon, which was organised by Carmarthen and Ferryside guild to present Coxswain Derek Scott of The Mumbles with a cheque for £1,000 for the station's lifeboat appeal, itself raised £545. The £1,000 was made at a spring supper at the Iscoed Home Farm, home of Mr and Mrs John Davies. The luncheon was held at Dr and Mrs Henry Maliphant's house.

Football supporters Loughton and District branch, holders of the UEFA Cup? Surely it's Tottenham Hotspur's! Not so for two hours last November when Spurs football club very generously lent the cup to the branch during their annual winter fayre. Despite unfavourable weather the fayre raised £1,038.65 with many people taking the opportunity of having their photograph taken with the cup at 75 pence a time.

More help from a football club, this time Nottingham Forest, came when Beeston and Chilwell branch were allowed to make a collection at their ground which amounted to £115. The branch was only formed in May 1983 but has already raised over £2,500 from many varied events; their 1984 flag day and house to house collection made £756 and a jumble sale in November 1984 brought in a further £170 for branch funds.

Travelling salesmen Lewisham branch's mobile souvenir shop is fast becoming a well known sight in the area. Since the branch first used it during the 1984 London lifeboat week, over £1,632 worth of souvenirs have been sold. Its last port of call was at Catford during the five performances of the South London Gang Show where a new song The Lifeboatmen', written by Colin Hume, had its premiere.

Long Eaton branch bought the ex- Porthcawl D class lifeboat from a local sub aqua club, and since restoring it, the branch have taken it to various events to display alongside a souvenir stall. In the last year £3,270 was sent to Poole headquarters. The branch's Christmas sale raised over £300 which included money from the raffle of a cake baked continued on page 172Winnie the Pooh invented Pooh sticks many years ago, but Days Lock Island branch in Oxfordshire have recently adopted the discovery of the bear of very little brain to make money for the RNLI. No fewer than 120 competitors took part in the branch's championships, held last December, dropping their sticks from Days Lock footbridge over the Thames at Little Wittenham. Chloe Wilson fought her way through the qualifying heats to take home the winner's sash and teddy bear prize. The minimum entry was 25p, there were hot dogs, soup and a raffle to keep everyone happy and the branch were £100 better off when it was all over.

Illustration by E. H. Shepard reproduced by kind permission of Curtis Brown Ltd.

and iced in the form of an RNLI house flag.

Mevagissey branch members man a souvenir shop throughout the summer months and in 1984 the bulk of their £11,000 remittance to Poole headquarters came from the sale of souvenirs.

The branch's flag week raised £614 and proceeds from a water carnival held in Portmellon Cove for both local residents and visitors, which were divided equally between two charities, brought in a further £464.

Inn keeping with lifeboat tradition Landlords and customers of public houses are among the most inventive and faithful fund raisers for the RNLI.

John Hueston, landord of The Plough, Downside, was recently presented with an RNLI plaque for raising over £500 in the last two years. Mr Hueston has organised a Beaujolais Nouveau sweepstake, Christmas draws, a firework evening and football matches to raise funds for the lifeboat service.

To help meet the cost of a new direction finding VHP set for Flamborough lifeboat, The Will and Fanny Kirby, Barry Crosby, landlord of the Royal Dog and Duck Hotel, organised £ A run service? Juniora variety of functions and in a year he and his regular customers raised £1,140.

A darts mini marathon, which lasted just one hour, was held at the Wise Man Inn, West Stafford near Dorchester, in July 1984. Two teams took part, one team made up from regulars to the Wise Man, the other consisting of officers, NCOs and soldiers from the nearby Bovington Army Camp. The two teams were sponsored for every 1,000 points scored as a team during the hour. The mini marathon raised £723, shared equally between Weymouth lifeboat station and the MacMillan Cancer Relief Fund. A bottle on the bar of the pub yielded a further £103 for the RNLI when the darts money was handed over.

Customers of the Duke of Wellington pub in Whidborne Street, London WC1, were not surprised to see barmaid Bet Lynch serving drinks on New Year's Eve. It was not, however, Julie Goodyear who plays the character in ITV's Coronation Street, but actually landlord Roy Oliver. Mr Oliver dressed up as Bet Lynch following a bet and raised £215; £130 of this was donated to the RNLI, the remainder going to the Licensed Victualler Appeal.

Raffles in two Newquay, Cornwall, hotels during the 1984 summer season made £1,800 to buy equipment and clothing for Padstow and Newquay lifeboat crew members. John Fairclough, bar manager at the Marina Hotel, sold raffle tickets for a weekly draw throughout the summer and £1,100 was raised as a result. Mr Fairclough got the idea from John Plumb, who works at the nearby Tolcarne Hotel; he raised £1,400 for Newquay lifeboat over the last two years, the 1984 raffle making £700.

In just over a year, visitors to the Observatory Hotel, Birkenhead, have helped raise over £1,000 for Oxton and Claughton branch. To achieve this substantial sum the staff of the small hotel have run regular raffles and filled collecting bottles and boxes.

Camberley branch's, annual sponsored pub crawl was very well supported in 1984; participants, dressed as cops and robbers, raised a total of £1,800.

Pin-ups put on pounds Noticing an article in the Daily Mail offering a coveted Pirelli calendar to those quick enough in sending off a request, Alan Butler of Southend station branch acquired one and, with the help of Roger Whistler, a fellow committee member, organised a special raffle. It proved very popular and £657 was made - all for the initial outlay of a 13p stamp.

A town gone quackers What could be more natural than to run a rubber duck race for the lifeboat service? Having sold no fewer than 1,500 toy ducks, Sligo branch, in the Republic of Ireland, together with the Junior Chamber of Commerce, organised for the purchasers to race their ducks on the Garavogue River. There was a very large number of spectators and the event raised £1,000.

Tamworth ladies' guild borrowed a different kind of rubber duck, an Atlantic 21 lifeboat, to display at a fiesta afternoon and barbecue held at the Tamworth Cruising Club base in June.

With support from the Mayor and Mayoress and many others, £180 was made at this land-locked event.

Arduous exercises Over 200 people took part in an 18-mile sponsored walk over beach and marsh (not the easiest of terrains for walking) along the coastline from Sheringham to neighbouring lifeboat station, Wells-next-the-Sea. Wells ladies' guild provided tea for all the walkers who raised £3,782 for Sheringham branch funds. Pupils from Beeston Hall School, whose headmaster is honorary secretary of Sheringham station, raised a staggering £2,785 towards the total.

The last six years have seen pupils of West Hove Middle School taking part in six sponsored swims. The 1984 swim raised £389, bringing their grand total to £1,583, all of which has been presented to Hove and Portslade branch.

Twenty-two crews from Guide and Scout groups in Northampton took part in a 24-hour rowing relay on the River Nene last October. The crews rowed 55 miles, 1,065 yards in total and a competition to guess the distance covered made £248 which was divided equally between the RNLI and the Guide and Scout boat fund. In 1983 the boys and girls rowed from Northampton to Peterborough, bearing greetings from the Mayor of Northampton to his opposite number in Peterborough. That row raised £92 for the RNLI.

Learning the trade Just before the end of each summer term, the 80 children aged between five and 11 in the care of Mr G. Wall, headmaster of Meavy Primary School near Yelverton, Devon, mount a sale of RNLI souvenirs. Two senior pupils are put in charge of the stocks provided by Tavistock branch. Proper book-keeping and accounting systems are adhered to and in 1984 a computer was used for the first time to keep stock records up to continued on page 174 Facing page: St Catherine's Quay, the maritime area of Blackgang Chine Fantasy Theme Park, on the Isle of Wight, has proved a huge success since it opened at Easter 1984, both as a public attraction and as a money maker for the RNLI. The ex-Flamborough lifeboat, Friendly Forester, (r) forms the centre-piece of this section of the Park. The Dabell family, which has had the park open to the public since 1843, are staunch lifeboat supporters and have collected money for the RNLI for many years. But the opening of St Catherine's Quay has meant that between April and September last year, a magnificent £3,076 was raised.

Photograph by courtesy of the Isle of Wight County Pressdate. Cakes and sweets made and sold by the children supplement the total and over £600 has been raised since the exercise began.

Unflagging With a little help from a Pearly Queen anything can happen. During flag week in Letchworth in September last year, Mrs Turgoose, who is a Pearly Queen, sold lifeboat emblems to passers- by and to many children fascinated by her pearly outfit. All together the flag day and lifeboat week raised £1,000, to which was added £200 from the sale of souvenirs.

Mrs M. Hood, a committee member of Holyhead ladies' guild, collected over £200 in her collecting box during three days of Holyhead lifeboat week. Mrs Hood stood with her box for a total of 12'/2 hours, and averaged approximately £16 per hour.

Pavement pounds Two bus drivers from the London Country Bus Company at Dartford, strayed from their normal routes to take part in the Epsom and Ewell half marathon in September last year. Nirmal Singh and James Himsworth both ran on behalf of Dartford and District branch and collected £147.10 in sponsorship money. It was Mr Himsworth's first attempt at running in a half marathon and after only six weeks of training he finished the 13 miles in under two hours. Nirmal Singh is a regular marathon runner and raised £137 for Dartford branch when he ran in the 1983 Dartford half marathon.

Weston-super-Mare is probably the only branch to organise its own marathon as a fund raising event. Two hundred and twenty runners and four walkers took part in 1984 and the fast, flat course produced a record finishing time of two hours, 30 minutes, 47 seconds. All runners are encouraged to find sponsors with the money divided equally between the RNLI and their own favourite charity. In 1984, £1,600 was raised for the Institution and over £500 for other charities.

Running in a half marathon is hard enough in itself, but add to the 13 miles the heat of Saudi Arabia and it is difficult to imagine how anyone couldfinish the course. Robert Hesselden ran in such a race in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia in December and raised a magnificent £850 in sponsorship for the RNLI.

While Mr Hesselden was in England in January he handed over his cheque to Anthony Oliver, appeals secretary.

Regular customers of the Rose and Crown pub, Godalming, ran in a sponsored fun run for charity and raised £376. As most of the runners have sailing as a hobby it was decided that the money should go to the RNLI and a cheque was duly handed over to John Drudge, secretary of Godalming branch, by Terry Agar, landlord of the Rose and Crown.

Floating funds Summer is the raft race season and 1984 saw three highly successful races.

York branch held their raft race in glorious July sunshine. A local firm, Camerons Breweries, sponsored the event and when all the proceeds had been counted up, they amounted to £3,767.74.

The ladies of Millport guild, Isle ofCumbrae, are obviously made of strong stuff, for not only did they finish fourth out of 25 teams who entered a raft race organised by the local Masonic Lodge, but they also survived the hazard of flour bombs thrown at them by spectators on the harbour side and in pleasure boats. The £165 donated to the branch by the Lodge after the raft race helped the ladies to raise over £4,870 in 1984.

Godalming branch's race was also held in July with 29 teams taking part, some even finished the race! Over £1,000 was raised from sponsorship and the sale of refreshments and souvenirs.

Herne Bay branch's annual raft racewas very well supported with 40 teams from various parts of South East England taking part. An award for the team raising the most sponsorship money was won by the Fuzzafloat team—the raft manned by the local police force, who raised £869. Proceeds from the race amounted to £4,000. Other events by the branch, including a summer fair on the seafront with a simulated rescue by a search and rescue helicopter from RAF Mansion, a Christmas fair and souvenir sales, helped the branch to raise over £10,000 in the last financial year.

Coffee shops In just three hours of a coffee morning and luncheon, by selling souvenirs and bric-a-brac, Kensington branch were able to raise a remarkable £784.50.

The branch committee organised the event in October 1984 to start off their new financial year.

Although only formed in 1983, Strathendrick branch are showing that they are not novices at fund raising.

Their Balfron coffee morning held in October made £515.

Earby guild also held a coffee morning, which included a tombola, raffle and various stalls. It was the first event organised since their secretary, Mrs Sylvia Dick, recovered from illness and revived the guild. At the end of the morning the guild were richer by £256.

Reliable sources Dymchurch branch organised many extra events in 1984 to celebrate the RNLI's 160th anniversary. They included three foot-tapping barn dances, a valuation afternoon, 'snowball' coffee mornings and a pie and punch party.

The branch also shared the proceeds from a fete held in Noel Coward's former home, Goldenhurst, at which over 1,500 people were present. Total monies raised in 1984 were over £4,500.

Hampstead Garden Suburb branch organised a bring and buy and food fayre in November 1984.' Over 200 people attended the fayre which netted £385 for the branch.

Busy fingers and artistic talent helped Burnham-on-Crouch ladies' guild raise over £2,000 in 1984. The Burnham ladies knitted jumpers and toys, madejam, cushions, shopping bags, pin cushions and dried flower arrangements to sell at a craft fair run by the guild.

Other events organised by the ladies included cookery and flower arranging demonstrations, held in the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club, a plant sale in May and the guild's garden lunch which took place in July.

In 1969 the Mexborough Retired Persons Group was formed and each year since then the group has raised funds for the Institution. In October last year the group held its annual craft fayre which made £996. The fayre was not, however, the group's only fund raising event on behalf of the RNLI and in 1984 they raised a total of £2,239. To this amount can be added the money group Readers digest?- Or is it the currant issue of the journal? This appetising and skilfully iced cake was the prize in a raffle organised by the newly formed Harrow branch when they were asked to take part in an open-air fund raising event run by the Irish Society. Despite pouring rain, the event was a huge success and Harrow branch were given £645 at the end of the day, exactly half the proceeds. In their first year Harrow have raised a grand total of £2,016 for the RNLI.members collected on behalf of the local RNLI guild during Mexborough's lifeboat week which realised £1,062.

Appledore station threw open its doors, or the shoreline at least, for an open day in July 1984. With help from a Royal Air Force helicopter taking part in an SAR demonstration with the Appledore lifeboats, and the local fire brigade who gave a fire fighting display, the day made £1,000 for Appledore branch funds.

The annual Seahouses harbour fete, the culmination of North Sunderland guild's activities for the year, broke all records in 1984 by raising £6,941.92.

Young people from Seahouses collected £641.07 during the day and the guild's souvenir stall at the boathouse during the summer weekends sold £1,684 worth of souvenirs, with a further £546.39 being sold on lifeboat fete day.

Six guilds from the Midlands region faithfully manned a souvenir stall at the Royal Show last July despite weather which would make a lifeboatman's hair curl. Coventry, Stratford-on-Avon and Warwick guilds, and Gnosall, Leamington Spa, Rugby and Redditch branches manfully stayed at their posts despite torrential rain during two of the show's four days, and raised £1,674.

The united efforts of Broadstairs branch and ladies' guild produced £12,076 last year. Champion souvenir sellers among their ranks accounted for some £4,000. The town's flag day brought in a record £1,718 and coffee mornings raised over £1,000.

At their annual noggin 'n natter, the Pirates Cruising Club of Epsom raffled all but their parrots to raise £156 for Yarmouth lifeboat, loW..