Yankie Doodle Dandy Children attending Lakenheath American Elementary school at RAF Lakenheath ran laps for four days in support of the RNLI.

Nearly 1,300children took part in theevent and raised £4,353 in sponsorship money.

The Institution supported the event by providing a half-scale model of a lifeboat and videos to show the work of the lifeboat service.

Taurean and Ryan were the top money earners and presented a cheque to Robin Burlingham of the Bury St Edmunds branch.

Famous names Some of the most famous names in the country, from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and HRH The Prince of Wales, to Spike Milligan and Bobby Charlton. were among those who donated lots to the Padstow I ifeboat 's Famous Names Auction held on 8 August last year, at the Royal Cornwall Showground, Wadebridge.

Two hundred and one lots came under the hammer and brought in £5,500. Lot 72, a kiss from Padstow coxswain Trevor England, and only available to ladies, went for an undisclosed sum! Plain sailing The SS Balmoral provided a memorable evening for 500 supporters of Caernarvon branch when, on an evening cruise in July lastyearshe sailed through the Menai Straits, passed Beaumaris, through Puffin Sound and on towards Moelfre.

The Caernarfon Male Voice Choir gave their services free of charge and their harmonies could be heard on either side of the Straits. With perfect weather and sea conditions the evening could be nothing but a success, and £1,100 was raised for the Institution.

Magnificent Max Landlord of the Railway Hotel Alton, Max Reitzler, outgrew his RNLI collecting box in his first year of collecting, so he and his supporters have found more ingenious ways of parting customers with from their money.

For 1988/89 a mock fruit machine was constructed for the collection of loose change and when the final 'pay out' was made the jackpot was £557.01.

Since 1980, when Max began collecting at the Railway Hotel, more than £4,000 has been raised. Summer Evening The ninth of a series of ten annual Summer Evenings held 'in the manner of Glyndebourne' at Hazlewood Castle in North Yorkshire under the patronage of the Marquis of Normanby, a vice-president of the RNLI and president of Whitby station branch, raised £7,700.

Stephen Wood of Leeds branch has organised all the evenings and this year's recital by Opera North was held in the presence of Sir Marcus Worsley, Bart, Her Majesty's Lord Lieutenant.

The musical evenings, together with two substantial donations, have now raised a magnificent £42,685 for the Institution.

Young models Young models helped to raise money for Filey Ladies' guild with a junior fashion show.

The show, which raised £ 185, involved 20 local children aged between 18 months and 13, who modelled clothes supplied by Nursery Rhymes of Filey, and Debenhams, Impulse, Rumours and Tammy Girl of Scarborough.

The music for the programme way arranged by 14-year-old James MacKenzie.

In brief SIXTY 'get up and go' grannies took part in a five mile sponsored walk from the Westbury White Horse in Wiltshire and raised £2,800.

THE FIRST winner of the Dave Bayfield Memorial Yacht Race, run by Felixstowe Ferry Sailing Club, was David White and his crewman Nigel Squirell. The race, in memory of Mr Bayfield who died last year, was a two hour pursuit race sponsored by The Famous Grouse Whisky. Twenty-eight entries from all classes took part and in all the day raised £1,400. all of which was donated to the Institution.

BREAKER, breaker. St Austell branch were delighted to receive £ 1,600 from a series of fund raising events organised by the South Coast Breakers, a local CB Radio group.

Members took part in a CB marathon, a snooker marathon and six ladies organised a street collection in St Dennis, Nanpean, Foxhole and St Stephens.

MRS BARBARA Ramsey took part in the 1989 London Marathon, and Ipswich and district branch benefited by £50335 through sponsorship.

THE LONG, hot summer of 1989 helped the Salcombe lifeboat crew raise over £2,000 which they presented to the acting chairman of their local branch. The coxswain and crew organised weekly barbecues throughout the summer to which all members of the public were invited.

IN JULY last year a summer party was held at the home of Mr and Mrs Richards, Birmingham branch chairman and his wife.

Nearly 200 people enjoyed a beautiful day and donated over £1,000 to the RNLI. Gardeners question time An RNLI weekend was organised by Worcester Ladies' guild at Clack's Farm, the home of Central Television gardening expert Mr Arthur Billitt and his wife Riet. Despite the inclement weather £1,403 was raised.

In a large marquee, sponsored by FBI, a panel of TV gardeners, Geoff Amos, Howard Drury, Arthur Billit and Jim Mclntosh held question-time sessions throughout the two days and their comments, wit and knowledge was much appreciated by the audience.

Other money raising attractions were tombola and a treasure hunt and souvenirs were also on sale. Local lifeboat enthusiast, John Sanders, displayed several of his model lifeboats, including 'Lizzie the Lifeboat', on a portable pool and caused as much interest with parents as with children.

Flying Penguins Penguins do not often grow pumpkins but in the Falkland Islands strange things happen.

The eighteen members of the Flying Penguin Club, based at Mount Pleasant in the Falklands, took part in a pumpkin growing competition.

Despite the fact that most of the plants died before bearing their fruit, the club were still able to raise a marvellous £540. Sowing Seeds A bet between two gardeners, Peter Wilkinson and Richard Podmore, over who could grow the largest sunflower, grew out of all proportions when they sold sunflower seeds to local residents in Preston to take part in a sunflower growing contest.

Twenty eight contestants took part, with more than £520 being raised. The winner was deemed to be Mr Bob Newlands, whose plant was 11ft tall.

A racing certainty During the summer of 1988 Peter Earle, landlord of The Kings Arms public house in Wandsworth, took up sailing for the first time. In less than a year Peter, with his son Richard, took part in the Fastnet Race.

But there was more than the race for Peter to get involved in. Four months before the race took place he decided to organise a grand raffle for the benefit of the RNLI.

Thousands of tickets were printed with all the prizes being donated by local businesses, the pub's darts teams and the local branch.

Books of raffle tickets were sent to all the pubs in the district and in August the lucky tickets were drawn, the first prize being conveyancy fees for moving house during the next two years! A splendid £3,203 was raised - and Peter completed the Fastnet Race successfully without having to call for help from the beneficiaries of his fund raising efforts! Ken Chaplin, treasurer of Clapham, Battersea and Wandsworth branch, presented a commemorative plaque to Peter. Family affair Carluke branch is largely made up of families with children of school age and when they take on a fund raising event it is always great fun and everyone gets involved. So the spring of 1989 the branch set out, with the assistance of their area organiser, on a schools initiative.

The aim was purely educational, not fund raising, and all ten primary schools in the area were approached and offered a film and talk on the work of the RNLI. All the schools accepted and an estimated 1,800 children became involved.

This was followed up by all the schools being invited to take part in an art competition on the subject 'Rescue at Sea'. Hundreds of entries were received, all of very high quality, and stories, paintings, poems and collages were judged and each age group within a school received a small prize.

The eldest class winner in each school received a special prize, an invitation for day at Troon lifeboat station and a trip to sea on its lifeboat. On the day itself the relief Arun class Sir Max Aitken was on station.

From this initiative spontaneous donations of over £600 have been received by Carluke branch.

Disco memories A disco organised by friends of Lee Whittaker, who was tragically killed in a car accident early in 1989, was held at Club Ifor Bach and raised £450 in her memory.

Lee was a keen amateur sailor and had sailed the Atlantic. A suitable Case for treatment at Filey An extra attraction helped Filey Lifeboat Day to raise more than £3,000 for the RNLI this summer.

A 1938 Case Roadless launching tractor, which has been restored to its original condition by owner Dave Pugh made a triumphant return to Filey on Saturday 12 August 1989,25 years after its departure from the station.

The tractor was of particular interest to long serving Filey tractor driver Dave Baker who had passed his test on a similar machine 20 years before. Dave later took the machine for a run on the sands.

The Case was coupled to the carriage of the station's 37ft Oakley class lifeboat Robert and Dorothy Hardcastle for a photo-call, but as the tractors had been phased out with the introduction of this heavier class of lifeboat the chocks stayed firmly under the wheels and no attempt was made to pull her.

However T29 was able to perform a useful duty later in the day when she towed the empty carriage back out to the lifeboat as she returned from a special trip carrying the civic dignitaries of Filey and Scarborough.

Other attractions on Lifeboat Day included the band of the York Railway Institute, an acrobatic display and a combined exercise involving the Oakley, the station's D class lifeboat and a Sea King helicopter which was watched by crowds thronging every vantage point. Quick on the draws As the result of a two-year promotion in conjunction with Volvo Concessionaires Ltd, £600,000 was raised from the sale of two million raffle tickets in 1987 and 1988.

Sixteen Volvo 340 cars were offered as prizes, the tickets being sold by RNLI volunteers throughout various regions in the country.

The proceeds from the first year went towards a Tyne class lifeboat named Voluntary Worker, which entered the relief fleet in September 1988.

A second lifeboat, Lifetime Care, (see naming ceremony in this issue), has entered the relief fleet.

The promotion finished at the end of 1988 but through the kind generosity of Volvo Concessionaires Ltd four more cars were made available to be raffled in four of our regions during 1989, resulting in a further £154,483.50 being raised.

The first draw was for the Welsh region with the winning ticket being drawn on 29 September by the Right Honourable The Lord Mayor of Cardiff, Councillor Beti Jones JP. The winner was Mr J. Hill of St Clears, Dyfed. The draw for the Scottish region took place on 30 September at the Edinburgh Sheraton and the winning ticket was drawn by Mr Hugh Reid, operations manager of Volvo Concessionaires Ltd. The ticket had been sold by Newburgh-on- Ythan branch and belonged to Mr W. Mathers of Boddam.

On 6 October Lt Cdr Brian Miles picked the winning ticket for the North East region at the regional office at Glasshouses. Mr P. Wall of Cottingham, Hull was the winner.

The final draw took place in the South West region on 10 October.

The Worshipful Mayor of Torbay, Councillor Mrs Eileen Salloway, assisted by Mr Charles Hunter- Pease, sales and marketing director for Volvo Concessionaires Ltd., picked the ticket of Mrs M. Lomax of Huddersfield.

It is hoped that further draws will take place in various regions in 1990. The amounts raised in the four participating regions were: South West £63,433 JO: Scotland £37,062: Wales £23,000: North East £30.988. Cycling diver says thank you A Yorkshire man picked up by the Porthdinllaen lifeboat while diving off Lleyn two years ago cycled from Land's End to John O'Groats to raise funds for his rescuers, and collected a magnificent £ 1,500 in sponsorship.

While on holiday in Aberdaron, Alan Wright, his 18-year-old son Philip and a friend, Keith Walker, went diving off Bardsey Island. Philip was left to look after the boat, and everything went well until they resurfaced - when to their horror they saw that strong currents had swept them away from their boat.

Despite waving and whistling they failed to draw Philip's attention and eventually drifted about three miles to the Irish Sea.

Philip and other divers began searching for Alan and Keith - who could see them giving up the search and also watched helplessly as a rescue helicopter from RAF Valley passed about 400 yards from the friends but also failed to see them.

As dusk was closing in on Bardsey Sound, Alan and Keith decided to keep close together so they could spend the night floating.

However, out of the blue the Porthdinllaen lifeboat arrived, one of the crew spotted them when they were about 200 yards away and they were picked up after five hours in the water.

Alan says he owes his life to Coxswain Griff Jones and the crew of the Porthdinllaen lifeboat and it was for that reason that he decided to raise money for the lifeboat service. Centenary celebrations To mark the centenary of the rescue of the St George by Peel lifeboat in 1889, Peel Ladies' guild organised a sparkling buffet dance, produced a commemorative booklet and invited Mrs Karen Nordli (daughter of the baby girl rescued from the St George) to join in the celebrations. The buffet dance raised well over £1,000.

In addition, the branch have also produced some first day covers which are available from the branch secretary Mrs J Gerrard, 1 Cowley Terrace, Peel, Isle of Man, price £2 for a standard, unsigned cover, and £3 for covers signed by Karen Bache Nordli, His Excellency the Lieutenant Governor, The Right Reverend Noel D Jones, CB QHG B A, Lord Bishop of Sodor and Man or by the present Peel lifeboat crew.

Drumming up support For the past 12 years Brian Barnes of the Old Drum Inn, Petersfield and his regulars have collected money for the Institution.

At a small ceremony held at the pub in July 1989, Mr Barnes handed over a cheque for £1,000 to Captain Tom Fanshawe, president of the Petersfield branch, who in turn presented Mr Barnes with a token of the branch' s appreciation. The £1,000 brings the total raised by the pub in recent years to £4,000.

That evening saw the start of another burst of fund raising; Teachers Whisky and Beefeater gin was sold for half price, and 18 gallons of Friary Meux bitter was also sold at half price. A total of £ 143 was collected. n brief BOYS' BRIGADE companies from within the West Lowland District (Scotland) have made a concerted fund raising effort to fund the anchor and cable for the new Portpatrick lifeboat which went on station in April. The anchor and cable are the emblems of the Boys' Brigade and the boys have a close association with Portpatrick. At a ceremony last October a cheque for £1,500 was presented to the Institution by the Rt Hon Viscount Thurso of Ulster JP, chairman of the Boys' Brigade.

THE 1989 Southern Region car draw raised a magnificent £53,614. The first prize of a Peugeot 309 GE car, generously supplied by Olds Motor Group, Dorchester was won by a visitor from Swansea. Second prize was a magnificent patchwork quilt made by the Cottage Quilters of Milton Abbas, Dorset, which depicted Grace Darling's famous rescue together with old and modern lifeboats.

The quilt was won by a lady in Reading, Berkshire. Five other prizes were generously donated by Brittany Ferries, P & O Ferries, Sealink Ferries and British Channel Island Ferries.

SHROPSHIRE'S Wem branch received a most unusual donation when a local supporter provided the branch with two lengths of very high quality gentlemen's suiting material, worth some £80 per length. As there are few tailors in the branch's rural area they would be pleased to hear from anybody who would like to turn this generous donation into cash. All enquiries to the branch chairman, Mr B Reader, telephone Wem 32393. Here we go The generous donation of six tickets, valued at IR£10 each, for the international soccer match between the Republic of Ireland and West Germany, ended with the Arklow branch being IR£350 the richer.

The tickets were sold to the highest bidder.

Jimmy Tyrrell, honorary secretary of Arklow lifeboat station, who was the recipient of the original six tickets, scored again by selling six more IR£8 tickets for the Republic of Ireland versus Northern Ireland game last October. This time IR£700 was raised.

Stockton summer Stockton (Norton) Ladies' guild had a busy summer of fund raising events, centred on the River Tees.

In May, during the Stockton Regatta, the ladies were invited to run a souvenir stall; in August the town and arts centre organised a River Festival which was a two-day family event on the river bank. Many and varied were the events, which were rounded off by a sail-past of colourfully decorated boats from the Riverside Boat Club.

Many of the Boat Club's members also belong to the Malleable Working Men's Club which had been collecting money in a whisky bottle - £300 worth! In all the amount raised during the various events in the summer came to £1,250.

Mystery lady A lady known to members of Yarmouth and Gorleston ladies' guild as 'Mrs Pooh' has been making anonymous donations to the guild for the last five years.

Dubbed 'Mrs Pooh' because all the donations have arrived in treacle tins, the lady and her husband donate an average of £30 a year, but the guild have no idea who she is.

Concerted fund raising The Buckie Ladies' guild, under its president Mrs Irene Davidson, have formed a 15- strong concert party who are in great demand all over the area at all kinds of functions with their combination of traditional Scots music, original comedy songs and sketches.

Judging by their success to date, the entertainment world had better keep an eye over its shoulder at the antics of the Ladies Lifeboat Concert Party.

Starting early Five young supporters from Preston, Lancashire, Michael and Steven Bolton, Dawn and Michael Burke and Owen Ralph organised a garage sale last August and raised £20. Honesty box Visitors sailing the Caledonian Canal via Loch Ness from Inverness to Fort William can make a half-way halt at Temple Pier, Drumnadrochit.

If the owner Mr Gordon Menzies is at home, berthing dues can be paid at his nearby bungalow. A notice at the head of the jetty goes on to explain that the berth is private but if there is no one at the bungalow donations for the RNLI placed in the pedestal box provided would be accepted in lieu! Mr Menzie is the local village electrician, plus an auxiliary coastguard on Loch Ness, thus spending a great deal of time away from home - which in turn makes the pedestal box a lucrative source of income for Inverness branch.

To keep the RNLI in the forefront of the cruising public on Loch Ness a shield was presented to Mr Menzies by Mr George Mansell, chairman of the Inverness branch, as a 'thank you' for £650 collected since August 1988.

Mighty music Extra seats had to be provided to accommodate queuing people at the Victory Hall in Ly tham for a concert by organi st Peter Jebson.

His two-hour show on the mighty Wurlitzer organ raised £590 for Lytham Ladies' guild.

Mr Jebson is the deputy head teacher at Lytham Hall Park School, choirmaster at St Cuthbert's Church and resident organist at the Cliffs Hotel, Blackpool. A happy anniversary The 21st anniversary of Usk and Raglan branch in Gwent was celebrated by raising a record sum of £3,300 during the year. As well as flag days, house to house collections and souvenir sales the branch organised a sherry morning, a shanty evening with a fish and chip supper and a fashion show. The high point of the summer was a fork supper, with fresh salmon from the River Usk held on a perfect summer evening and which alone raised almost £1,200.

n brief HIS GRACE the Duke of Atholl attended the Blairgowrie branch Cheese and Wine Garden Party at Altamount House Hotel and received a cheque for £1,000.

FOURTEEN year old Mark Russell and fellow Montrose Academy pupil Martin Oliver set off from Montrose lifeboat station on 1 October and cycled to Arbroath lifeboat station, where they were met and shown round the lifeboat by Crew Members John Blues and Clayton Jarrett. Having been suitably refreshed the two boys cycled back to Montrose.

A successful trip for the boys, and the RNLI as they raised £250 in sponsorship.

A MEMBER of Erdington Branch, Birmingham, Mrs Clifford, bravely faced an abseil down the rock face at Symonds Yat, raising over £200 for her branch.

A COFFEE morning and an afternoon tea, both great successes, helped Hitchin branch to send £1,800 to Hadleigh depot, the largest single sum the branch has been able to donate and rounded off their financial year in style.

A TWO minute dash around William Low's Blairgowrie supermarket was first prize in a duck race held on the River Ericht on Braemar Night and organised by Blairgowrie branch.

The dash was sponsored by British Alcan and a consolation prize of a bottle of whisky was donated by the Angus Hotel. The duck race raised £375 for the branch and the winner of the dash filled two trolleys with goods to the value of £153.04.

THE MERSEY Lifeboat Appeal to raise funds for the new Hoylake lifeboat received a boost when, on 11 September 1989, a cheque for £129,225.97 was presented to Anthony Oliver, RNLI head of fund raising, by the Lord Lieutenant of Merseyside - monies raised at the time of the official launch of the appeal.

IN OCTOBER 1989 Halesworth and District branch held a shipwreck party making a profit of £265 on the event and selling £233 of Christmas items and souvenirs.

IN ITS first year of activity the Rame Peninsula branch has raised the marvellous amount of £8,500. Their first house to house collection and flag day brought in over £ 1,868 and Torpoint flag week brought in a further £1,203.

THE 'ANCHOR' of Girvan Ladies' guild's collecting box holders is the Anchor pub whose regulars contribute more money year by year.

In the last financial year their donations amounted to £350 out of a total from the boxes of £1,659..