Air support During a weekend in October BBC Radio Newcastle ran a lifesaver appeal to raise money for the lifeboat service.

Listeners rang in to pledge money or to offer items for a charity auction, and many organisations, including Newcastle ladies' guild, organised fund raising events. Lemington branch chairman, Mrs Dorothy Glover, held a cheese and wine evening to raise money for the appeal. The evening made £132. Invaluable publicity for the RNLI was transmitted over the airwaves during the weekend drumming up new support for the Institution and over £11,000 in donations.

Musical evenings Talented young musicians from the London Borough of Barnet provided an evening of excellent entertainment for an audience packed into a local sixth form college. The Barnet Schools' Brass Ensemble, Symphony and Wind Orchestras played pieces by Rachmaninoff, Haydn, Faure, Rimsky-Korsakov and Grainger. Solos were played by Andrew Adigun (piano), Susannah Martin (flugel horn) and Martin Kennedy (euphonium). In a closing speech Barnet's general adviser for music, Mr Maxwell-Pryce, said that as the musicians had all played on music cruises in the Baltic, Atlantic and Mediterranean they appreciated the dangers faced by seafarers and were glad to help the RNLI, which they did in great style by raising £380 for Hendon and Mill Hill branch.

Not all successful fund raising events need to be organised well in advance.

At very short notice Southbourne branch put together an evening of music sung by girl students from Yale University, USA, who were visiting the town in June last year. The Whim'n Rhythm Choir for 1985 were touring the country having raised the money to pay for their stay themselves. They performed a varied repertoire to an audience which included the Mayor and Mayoress of Bournemouth, Councillor Rob Wotton and Councillor Mrs Bessie Bicknall.

(The choir had never sung for a mayor before.) The evening was compered by Chris Kelly from the local Two Counties Radio station. In spite of being hurriedly organised the concert made £100 for the RNLI.

Endurance rewarded To walk 600 miles along the south west coast path, from Somerset to Dorset via Lands End carrying camping gear is an arduous enough feat, but when it rains every day of the trip except one, the difficulty is increased.

Four pupils, two aged 16 and two 15, from Churchers College, Petersfield, made the 600-mile walk during last year's disappointing summer. Daniel Copple, Colin Olden, Kevin Simmonds and Christopher Berryman decided to make the trip and carried it out entirely on their own initiative. They slept under canvas every night and the constant rain made the going very difficult and dangerous in places where the path passed close to the cliff edge.

All the hardship and effort was well worthwhile as it brought in £1,158 in sponsorship.

Food poisoning, 'flu, extremely cold nights and lots of blisters failed to deter Nigel Perrin (19) and James Davison (18) from completing a 900-mile walk from John O'Groats to Lands End. The two men started their mammoth journey in September at Victoria Station,London, making the journey north by coach and train. Then they set off, walking south, equipped with strong walking boots and camping gear. During part of the walk the nights were so cold that they had to stay in bed and breakfast homes, more often than not having the rooms provided free of charge by generous proprietors. James suffered from 'flu and sometimes found it difficult to keep walking their average of 17 miles a day. Nigel got food poisoning and both had masses of blisters on their feet. Their trek took 52 days to complete, with rain and storms adding to the problems. Their extremeperseverance was well rewarded by their sponsors with, so far, well over £3,000 going to Pangbourne and District branch.

Hitting the bottle Not by over indulging but actually by hitting it with a coin. Members of the Ship Inn Cork Club spent an evening trying to be the person whose ten pence piece landed nearest to a large bottle placed on the floor. The eventual winner was presented with a bottle of spirits as his prize. The competition was the idea of landlord of the Ship Inn, Jim Marriott, and made £33.80 for Hitchin branch. The branch themselves made a splendid £510.12 at a punch, pie and carol evening in December, their last fund raising event of 1985. Mr and Mrs John Perkins kindly allowed the branch to use their renovated tithe barn for the evening, where home made hot punch and mince pies were served. In addition, over £200 was raised by a raffle during the evening, all the tickets being sold by Miss Julie McKeand.

Bearing the costs The new Aith lifeboat Snolda now has a very large and rather expensive mascot, a giant teddy bear called Charlie.

Scalloway Boating Club member Charlie Johnson won the bear in a club raffle and promptly put him up for auction in aid of Aith lifeboat appeal. Fellow club members Ivor Anderson and Alan Ridland paid £510 for Charlie, who was presented, along with their cheque, tothe station when boat club members travelled to Aith Social Club. Charlie the bear is now residing in Clarke's shop in Aith until his permanent home, which will double as crew rooms, is built! Licensees' support Members of the North Somerset and South Avon Ladies Auxiliary League of the Licensed Trade have been raising money for Weston-super-Mare lifeboat station throughout the past year. At a special ceremony just before Christmas a cheque for £200 was presented to Geoffrey Flint, chairman of Weston branch, by Geoff Collins of Matthew Clark & Sons, who is president of the Auxiliary.

Rounder bout While most people were taking things easy on Boxing Day last year, regulars of the Travellers' Call pub at Great Moor, nr Stockport, Cheshire, were involved in something much more active. Somebodies Squaws were locked in battle against Bob's Braves in a game of baseball/rounders. Over £200 was raised from the game. Publican Bob Smith, an RNLI life governor, has been raising money for the Institution for over 10 years, during which time he and his customers have collected over £2,500.

Christmas present Progress has caught up even with Father Christmas; when he arrived at Buckie he wasn't in his traditional reindeer sleigh but in a Sea King helicopter from RAF Lossiemouth. He was met by local guild president Mrs Irene Davidson and Mrs Janice Roy, a guild member. Father Christmas was then given a whistle-stop tour of the town by hotelier Mr Cammie Hendry in his horse and cart before arriving at the Fishermen's Hall where he installed himself in a suitably decorated grotto, waiting to hear what local children wanted for Christmas. The rest of theHall was a winter wonderland with sales stalls festively adorned. Seasonal music was played through the loud speakers and teas served to eager shoppers.

During the afternoon £680 was raised, over £280 more than the previous year.

Bright sunshine outside and much festive spirit inside ensured that Salcombe and Hope Cove guild's 1985 Christmas fair was a great success.

Souvenir and gift stalls, miniature Christmas cakes and delicious home-made sweets produced a brisk trade. Hampers bulging with delectable goodies were among the raffle prizes, and FatherChristmas kept the younger visitors happy. Nearly 500 people went to the fair which brought in over £2,000.

Sell out England cricketer Graham Gooch, a five-course dinner and the knowledge that money was being raised for the RNLI, proved irresistible to Saffron Walden businessmen and their ladies.

Within days of announcing the dinner, Jill and Chris Oliver, who run the tiny Crown pub at Little Saffron, had to call a halt to applications for tickets; 42 had been sold instead of the expected 28 andyet more tickets would have been sold had there been more room. Graham Gooch donated a signed cricket bat and an Essex team photograph for the auction and for the ladies there was a raffle for silk and perfume. At the end of a highly enjoyable evening £899 had been raised, three times the anticipated result.

Open for business John Connell, coxswain of Amble lifeboat, performed one of the more unusual services of his lifeboating career when he opened a new Walter Wilson's supermarket in the town. A donation of £100 was made to the branch funds to mark the event and the previous evening the lifeboat crew were invited to a reception. Mrs Connell, chairman of the local Amble and Warkworth ladies' guild said the store's opening was 'another way of recognising the RNLI and strengthening the village commitment in support of the lifeboat station'.

Long hop Forty aching feet maybe, but also £350 in sponsorship was the result of a sponsored country dance in aid of St Andrews branch. Twenty students danced the day away to period music from 9.30 am to 6.00 pm in the evening to achieve their lucrative goal.

Ongoing profit situation . . .

oops! During an RYA Coach/Examiner course at Cowes last year students were fined 20 pence by course instructor John Driscoll each time they mis-used the word 'situation' in either written or spoken form. (He has an understandable aversion to its over-abundance in today's parlance.) Such was the regularity of its use, or mis-use, that Mr Driscoll was ableto send £10.40 in fines to RNLI headquarters when the course was over.

Full houses During a lifeboat evening at The Swan at Great Bourton, near Banbury, in November last year, Banbury branch chairman, David Gittins, showed the film Storm Force Ten. Other entertainment was provided by the Witney folk singers Robbie Robinson and Shane.

Despite dreadful weather a large number of people attended the evening which had been organised by the landlord and his wife, Malcolm and Gill Crosbie. By the end of the evening £65 had been made.

The Red House pub in Tonbridge, Kent, was the scene of a lively lifeboat evening and auction in November organised by licensee Bob Salisbury. The auction was conducted by Dave Morrison and among the items on offer was a print of Dover lifeboat, the original of which had been presented to the Queen Mother at the lifeboat's naming ceremony.

The evening made a splendid £200.04.

Ralph and Laraine Brown, licensees of the Simonside Arms Inn, South Shields, were presented with an RNLI plaque in recognition of their fund raising efforts. In just 12 months £1,020 was collected from customers, £320 of which was sponsorship earned by their daughter Georgia who ran in the Great North Run. Mr and Mrs Brown have since moved to the Turks Head, South Shields, which has a magnificent view ofthe River Tyne, and the Tynemouth lifeboat is moored nearby. Any supporters visiting the area are guaranteed a warm reception.

Party time In 1985 Durham Amateur Rowing Club organised a party to raise funds for Durham City ladies' guild. Guests enjoyed a barbecue in the club marquee followed by a 2-mile trip in a river launch, kindly loaned by Browns Boathouse Ltd, to see Durham Cathedral bathed in evening light. This was followed by a disco in the clubhouse provided by Quasar disco. The party was a great success and made £147 for the guild.

A surprise was in store for Syd Gillingham, retiring deputy regional organiser for the south east, when he attended a cheese and wine party organised by Woodham and New Haw branch. Unbeknown to Syd, they had, together with Chertsey, Addleston and Ottershaw branch and West Byfleet branch, bought him a retirement present of a whisky decanter and a set of glasses. During the evening the film Making of a Crew was shown. This well organised evening made £300 in addition to the £120 worth of souvenirs sold.

Widespread supporters Aberystwyth lifeboat station has been the fortunate recipient of a number of cheques for money raised in many different ways; the Morfa Bychan caravan park has provided the lifeboat with a number of customers over the years and has now started raising money to say thank you. Residents Margaret Windsor and Mary Tamms have organised various special events which raised £300, and a harvest home brought in a further £245 when produce was auctioned.

And now for the knock-on effect: some years ago after a well-meaning person had called out the lifeboat on what turned out to be a false alarm, the 'casualty's' family, the Talbots from Penkridge, organised a jumble sale to pay for the fuel used by the lifeboat while she was out at sea; it raised £40.01V2. The jumble sale became an annual event in Penkridge and it caught the eye of a band of ladies known as the Goodies who raise money for a number of charities. They invited Mrs Talbot to sell Christmas cards and souvenirs at some of their events. In 1985 the Goodies included Aberystwyth lifeboat station in their list of charities and handed over a cheque for £300.

Ship to shore To ease the boredom while their ship was being re-fitted, a team from HMS Alderney challenged HMS Soberton to a fancy dress five-a-side football marathon. After a close match the team from HMS Alderney won 100 to 97 and raised £218 in sponsorship which was forwarded, appropriately enough, to Alderney branch.

Model fund raisers Visitors to Exmouth in the summer are guaranteed to find something to attract their attention every Thursday and Saturday evening, for that is when members of the local model boat club have their club nights. The club, which is affiliated to Exmouth and Budleigh Salterton guild, sail their boats and scale models on a small sea-front pool next to the lifeboat house from 7 pm until dark.

This affiliation to the guild means that the RNLI receives £1 per membership and the guild also benefits from any money received at fetes, school displays and other events. In November 1985 the club helped the guild raise £430.32 at Exmouth Community College open day by putting on a display in the school swimming pool.

Waterproof The bravery of branch workers is unlimited. Despite continuous rain during the Romsey Show last September the ladies of Romsey branch would not stop selling souvenirs. Instead of packing up and going home they donned oilskins, sou'westers and large smiles and gamely took everything the weather could throw at them. By the end of the show they had sold £186.22 of souvenirs, £210.25 of draw tickets and received £9.34 in donations.

Young traders Acting on their own initiative Hannah and Simon Gibbs (aged 8 and 12 respectively) and their friend Stephanie Gordon (8), collected things from their friends to sell and then set up a stall in their garden. Having kept them occupied for several days, Hannah and Simon were able to hand £17.14 to their grandfather, Mr R. A. Pain, treasurer of Dover branch.

Six young friends from Verwood in Dorset decided they wanted to raise money to buy a lifeboat, so Ben and Tom Roscorla, Martin and Peter King and Stewart and Emma Cole got together some of their unwanted old toys, sold them and made £4.89 from the deal.

Knees up Eighteen London Pearly Kings and Queens attended a Cockney style evening at Thorngate Hall, Gosport, last October. The event was organised by Gosport branch and during the evening the Pearlies entertained guests with songs, dances, comedy and music, and helped to sell raffle tickets too. At the end of a very enjoyable evening £326 had been raised.

Crafty idea Fine arts and crafts were on display in an exhibition organised by Lowestoft guild in the town's Gunton Hall in October 1985. The event, which began the guild's 25th anniversary year, was well supported by local craftsmen who demonstrated their skills and were generous in giving their time and donations.

Over 800 people visited the exhibition and a very creditable £2,500 was made.Family traditions Fifty years ago, after a visit to Southend and Clacton, Mrs Edith Cowlishaw began to raise money for the RNLI in the tiny village of Brookville in Norfolk.

When Mrs Cowlishaw died in 1966 her son Ivor took over her fund raising mantle, becoming chairman of Methwold, Hythe and Brookville branch. He is now heading towards the family's golden jubilee of fund raising for the Institution, and recently handed over a cheque for £1,000.

Ladies of Kelso have also been raising money for the Institution for half a century and held a celebration dinner at the Ednam House Hotel in November.

A toast to the Kelso guild was proposed by Barbara Laing, area organiser for Scotland. Principal speaker for the evening was Douglas Landells, vicepresident of North Berwick lifeboat station. The event was a purely celebratory affair but the ladies could also celebrate the fact that they raised £1,186 in 1985, over £200 up on the previous year.

High jump Beverley Foote, Lisa Smaldon, Sue Clark and Tina Daymond all have two things in common; they all work in the Torquay branch of Dingles department store and they have all made a sponsored parachute jump in aid of Torbay lifeboat station. The four girls overcame their nervousness to make a successful jump from 2,500 feet at Dunkerswell last July, raising £250, a rate of 10 pence per foot! Visiting friends Commandant Vonla McBride, a member of the Committee of Management and also chairman of Lewisham branch, paid a special visit in November 1985 to the south east headquarters of the London Ambulance Service in Bromley. She went along to receive a cheque for £327, the proceeds of a dinner dance organised by the ambulance station's sports and social club.

Commandant McBride was also able to thank Mr George Healy, divisional ambulance officer, for making available an ambulance during a sponsored walk in Ladywell Fields, Lewisham, last October which itself raised over £2,000.

During a tour of the station Commandant McBride met ambulanceman Keith Mulford who will be running in the 1986 London Marathon under sponsorship for the RNLI.

Travelling sales Following a very generous gift of a caravan from Mr Paddy O'Donovan, president of Winchcombe and Bishops Cleeve Lions Club, and other members of the club, souvenir sales of Cheltenham branch soared to over £3,600 in 1985. The caravan, which was renovated by branch members Frank Austin, Neville Home, Mike Chandler and Bob Coles, was stationed in one of the town's pedestrian precincts during the four Saturdays before Christmas and over £800 of souvenirs were sold.

The ladies of St David's guild are also reaping the benefits of a generous caravan donor. Mr David Rees converted the caravan himself for souvenir sales before donating it to the guild.

With their extra mobility and storage space the ladies have been able to sell their wares at many more local shows and events. As a result they sold well over £3,000 of souvenirs, which in turn brought the total the guild handed over to St David's lifeboat station to £8,900, the highest amount ever.

Newcastle upon Seine? After Beaujolais Nouveau we have Nouveau Broon, a spoof race taking specially labelled bottles of Nouveau Broon (brewed by Newcastle Breweries Ltd) to Paris. Fifteen Round Table clubs in the north east took part in the race; one of them, Tynemouth Round Table, collected £340 for the Institution in sponsorship and prize money. They were given £100 by the brewery for being the fourth fastest team to reach Paris with their crate of beer. The money was donated to Tynemouth lifeboat station.

Undeterred Two disabled stalwarts from Coventry canoed 50 miles to raise money for Coventry branch. Carl Oakley, who has only one leg, and Philip Morris, who has only one arm, completed the paddle and collected £270 in sponsorship money.

Glad rags to riches The Shakespeare Centre in historic Stratford-upon-Avon was the venue for a fashion show organised by Stratford ladies' guild. Day and evening wear was provided by Marjorie of Stratford and Wellesbourne. While showing the clothes to the capacity audience, models also demonstrated how to relax on furniture kindly lent by Spadesbourne Designer Upholstery of Henley-in- Arden, and Burman Antiques of Stratford.

Antique jewellery was lent for the show by Jean A. Bateman. This model evening's fund raising made £734.

Art versus oar power Two very diverse events, with one aim in mind, made Falmouth branch £4,135 the richer in 1985. The first, a gentle affair, was a concert by the Duchy Quartet at the home of Mrs P.

A. Cohen at Portscatho. It was an inaugural concert for which the quartet waived their normal fee, and the music, played in a home which overlooks the sea in a very special setting, made the event, which raised £135, an occasion to remember. In total contrast, the Cornwall Federation of Young Farmersdecided that some of their members should travel to their annual conference in Bournemouth by some unusual conveyance.

A gig was chosen and it was rowed from Cawsand Bay to the south coast resort, requiring considerable physical endurance to combat fatigue and some seasickness. Having successfully made the trip the young farmers milked £4,000 from their friends in sponsorship money.

Bright idea Over 5,000 coloured lights decorated Canvey Island's Corner Club last Christmas and, to make them earn their keep, club proprietors Bill and Peter Davenport made members guess the exact number used in a competition aimed at raising money for the RNLI.

The satisfactory result was £250 towards Canvey Island branch whose members made a further £50 selling souvenirs and home-made marmalade at the club.

Office party The staff of Oracle Teletext Ltd, ITV's television information service, did a service to the RNLI at their Christmas party last year. They ran a raffle and sent the proceeds, a cheque for £100, to lifeboat headquarters.

Round the clock The Catherine Wheel pub at Drayton St Leonard has some very enthusiastic regulars and two very good darts teams.

Under the direction of licensee Peter Tyler and his wife Ann, the customers have won for the pub a shield for having the most profitable collecting box in the Wheatley and District branch area. The two darts teams, for their part, organised a 12-hour darts marathon, clocking up 263,681 in points and £320 in sponsorship.

Quick start Having been inactive for some years, the re-formed Norton (Stockton) ladies' guild soon began fund raising after their first meeting; they had to as the flag day had already been allocated for the town and, in the event, over £367 was collected. The following week a coffee morning was held in the home of guild secretary Mrs V. M. Sale. A cake stall, RNLI souvenirs and a raffle were organised and £253.20 was raised during the morning. In only the first 12 days of the new guild's existence £620.63 had been made.

Reliable sources For the last 10 years a summer cocktail party has been held at Sheet House, home of Major General Sir Humphry and Lady Tollemache, in Petersfield. The parties, held to raise funds for the local branch have brought in an average of £1,000 a year; a total of £10,000 has therefore been made since they began in 1976. The Petersfield branch was the recipient of money raised during another annual localevent, the Great Butser Run, a walk or run to the local high point, Butser Hill.

The run raises money for a different charity each year, 1985 being the RNLI's turn to benefit, and benefit the branch did, to the tune of £2,820.

To raise £1,000 in its first year and increase that amount by an extra £1,000 every following year was the target set for Moseley branch by its founder, Jim Mead. The branch recently celebrated its 10th anniversary and could also celebrate the fact that the target had been met; in the last ten years £55,214 has been raised by some extremely active branch workers.

Sale branch had a very successful fund raising year in 1984/85; two 'at home' evenings held at the homes of the branch president and chairman made £200 and £235 respectively. Collections during flag week raised £765 and a lifeboat shop made £308 in just one week. An arrangement with the local Tesco store brought in a further £581 while a collection at the ASTMS building netted £100.

For many years the Farnworth and District Reform Club have had an RNLI collecting box on their premises, but donations have increased so much that they now have two, and in three years club members have given nearly £100 to Farnworth and Kearsley branch.

Although their town has few obvious links with the sea, in the last two years over £10,000 has been sent to RNLI headquarters by Uttoxeter ladies' guild.

In 1985 a summer supper party raised £650; a day of valuations by Christies the auctioneers and a race night each made nearly £1,000 and the boys of a local prep school donated £1,400, the proceeds of a sponsored swim. Other fund raising events organised by the ladies guild include luncheon parties, nearly new shops and floral demonstrations.

Helmsman Alan Clarke from Hunstanton lifeboat station was guest of honour at a Christmas coffee morning organised by Mrs Douglas Clark and committee members of the local ladies' guild last November. In only an hour and a half, £1,378 had been raised. At the guild's AGM in December it was reported that 1984/85 had seen a turnover of £14,000.

Gravesend ladies' guild was £800 better off after a supper dance organised by the Cherry family. Mr Vic Cherry and his family have been running the annual dances in aid of the RNLI for the past 12 years.

The RNLI in Scotland has a very generous friend in the oil company Conoco (UK) Ltd. For the seventh time the company has made annual donations to three Scottish branches; in 1985 these were at Aberdeen, Dundee and Shetland. All three received £1,000 as, in the words of George Watkins, director and general manager of northern operations at Conoco 'recognition of the RNLI's outstanding and valuable service in Scotland'.

The Cambridge Footlights, first step to stardom for many of today's great comedians, gave a show at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham, in July 1985. The show is a regular event organised by Nottingham and District branch entertainments committee; it is very profitable too, and raised over £2,500 for the RNLI last year. Sunday July 6 is the date for the 1986 show, to be held once again at the Theatre Royal.

During the financial year ending September 1985, Bournemouth ladies' guild raised over £8,000 which included two £1,000 donations from the Ellen Cooper-Dean Charitable Foundation.

The guild's president, the Marchioness of Salisbury was present at the annual bridge afternoon in December which raised £638. A further cheque for £1,000 was also received from the Cooper-Dean Foundation during the afternoon.Cecil Miller, an artist living near Woodford, Essex, drew a series of five Christmas cards to be sold to raise funds for Woodford and Wanstead branch. The cards were printed and donated to the branch by Thomas Holland Printers of Huntingdon, and were sold at the branch's Christmas market held at the All Saints Church Hall, Woodford Green. At the market fancy goods, RNLI souvenirs, groceries, herbs, cakes and bric-a-brac were on sale and a total of £1,074 was raised.

The card reproduced here is of Highams Park Lake..