Anniversary Morning Market Harborough ladies' guild celebrated its 21st anniversary year by holding a birthday coffee morning at the home of Mrs Roland Orton, president and founder of the guild.

The party was to thank all members and supporters, and a competition, to guess the amount the guild had raised over the 21 year period (£73,724), was won by a past member of the committee Mrs Judy Brown.

Mr Richard Mann, regional organiser for Central England, presented Mrs Orton with a commemorative Grace Darling mug, and a celebration cake - decorated with the RNLI flag and lifeboats - was cut and served to all the guests. In brief A CHILDREN'S fashion show with the young models wearing clothes from 'Bubbles' Children's Wear and organised by Caterham and District branch raised approximately £300.

Miss TRACEY Oliver, daughter of Cullercoat's deputy launching authority, obtained 306 sponsors for the Great North Swim in April of this year and presented Cullercoats branch with a cheque for the magnificent sum of £830.

Dow CORNING, a company in Barry, South Glamorgan, has adopted the Barry Dock lifeboat, and to help with the running costs presented a cheque for £1,000 to the coxswain, Ray Finn.

A MUSICAL evening held at Clandon Park, near Guildford, raised over £900 for Woking branch. The evening took the form of a recital by the Silk Street Brass Quintet, which comprises five students from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Their repertoire ranged from Fats Waller to Mozart via West Side Story.

THE JUNIOR section of the 2nd Alton Company Boys Brigade overwhelmed the chairman of Alton branch by presenting her with 421b of used stamps! A recent fashion show organised by the branch raised £380.

A CONCERT by The Suffolk Military Band at the community centre in Needham Market raised £725 for the Stowmarket and Needham Market branch including £90 worth of souvenirs sold in a record 15 minutes.

THE ANNUAL Festival of Real Ale held at Ealing Town Hall raised over £70 for Ealing branch, this being in addition to the £246 previously donated by the organisers CAMRA.

THE ANNUAL dance held by Mudeford ladies' guild at Hoburne Caravan Park raised more than £500. At the event Mrs I. Beswick, a founder member of the gui Id, was presented with a framed certificate of thanks. Gingering up the RNLI Around Christmas time each year Miss Louise Hood of Cullercoats raises money for charity. This year her efforts were on behalf of Cullercoats branch, and she made the splendid sum of £602 by selling her home-made ginger wine at 50p a bottle.

Apart from making the wine, Miss Hood also collected and filled 1,200 bottles before putting the wine on sale at the local St George's Church every Sunday morning .

Buckets of coins Visitors to the British Sub-Aqua Exhibition and Festival of Underwater Sport held in April at the National Sports Centre, Crystal Palace were greeted on arrival by a large contingent of the Lewisham branch, who had arranged a bucket collection.

The event was a huge success, raising £2,732 in coins of all denominations, and a further £500 was raised on a souvenir stall. Stepping out Mr Wilf Deadman of East Grinstead has been instrumental in raising over £3,700 for Newhaven lifeboat, mainly through his organisation of two sponsored walks.

His first walk in 1988, organised in conjunction with East Grinstead 'Early Bird' CB Radio Group, raised £1,300.

Most of the money was used to purchase a new Decca navigator for the station's Arun class lifeboat Keith Anderson.

His second sponsored walk raised £2,400, £500 of which came from a donation from the Amey Roadstone Company.

On this occasion the walk was organised with the East Grinstead Rover crew and a small amount of the money was used to fund a new portable VHP radio for the station's Y boat.

Wilf has also sold many pounds' worth of souvenirs, plants and so on in aid of RNLI funds. Records broken The Edinburgh Ladies' guild have once again broken all records with their annual flag week collections.

With some 2,400 collecting boxes, distributed through more than 100 conveners who effectively cover the organisation of collections in major city offices and stores, the city centre and the vast expanse of house-tohouse collections, showing an increase of more than £3,000 this remarkable team effort topped £37,500, with more still to come.

School aid Four nine- and ten-year-old girls in the third year juniors at Courtwood School, Croydon, decided to organise a sponsored piano playing session during Lifeboat Week 1990.

Antonia Maxwell, Nikki Basken, Louise Piggen and Helen Wylie played non-stop for half-an-hour during their lunchtime and raised £40.90, in addition to the amount collected in the school's collecting box.

At another school in Croydon, the fourth year junior class at Forestdale decided to hold a sponsored silence during Lifeboat Week and they raised £40.87 in addition to their school's collection.

A splendid effort by all the children concerned.

The piano players are already talking about next year! In brief THE GREEN MAN at Ickleford, run by Mr and Mrs Andy Simmons, held a beach party recently, despite the lack of sea or sand, and raised £150 for Hitchin and District branch.

A MOST successful lunch and fashion show was held at the home of Mr and Mrs Townhill and raised £635.50 tor Withernsea Ladies' guild.

As PART of their fund raising activities in 1989 the Nottingham Flag Day committee raised more than £1.500 in a prize draw.

Many prizes were presented by local businessmen and the draw was made by Alison Nicholas, ladies' champion golfer.

IN WORTHING a pub between the town centre and the seafront has supported the RNLI admirably during the past year. Imbibers at JB's Bar have been instrumental in raising a total of £1,850 for the Worthing branch, and £850 has been donated by the branch to the Shoreham lifeboat appeal.

Two HUNDRED guests danced to the music of the New Riverside Jazz Band at a Celebration Ball held by Barrow-in-Furness Ladies' guild to mark the 125th anniversary of Barrow lifeboats. A splendid buffet prepared by the guild was enjoyed by all present and £1,800 was raised for lifeboat funds. Barqueing up the right tree Benfleet Yacht Club's annual dinner in aid of the RNLI raised a record amount for the Benfleet branch this year. Members and guests were entertained by local singlehanded transatlantic sailor Roy Hart, who persuaded (with little difficulty) those present to dig even deeper into their pockets than usual, and the Club itself generously rounded up the total amount to a grand £1,300.

A further £26 was raised from entry fees for the Paper Boat Race held each year.

Entries must not exceed 12in overall length, and the hull must be constructed of paper.

Open to all comers, craft are required to sail 100 yards across the creek and the degree of sophistication varies from plain folded paper to four-masted barques with self-steering gear! A model event Area organiser Dennis Walker provided the climax to a successful spring fashion show at Ditchling village hall when he appeared in full lifeboatman's gear to bring home to the audience the cost of each item of equipment.

Dennis undertook the modelling assignment when crew members of Shoreham lifeboat declined the offer to walk the catwalk! The show was in aid of the Shoreham Harbour lifeboat appeal and raised £1,000 towards its target. Doubly safe Two more donations have been presented the RNLI by Western Geophysical/Shell UK.

Both Lerwick and Aberdeen lifeboats have benefited to the tune of £10,000 each from the safety incentive scheme which saw the crews of Western Cove and Western Challenger achieve an accident-free contractual period with Shell Expro.

The first donation was presented Teesmouth lifeboat and a full report of the safety incentive scheme appeared on page 242 of the Spring issue of THE LIFEBOAT.

One more time...

At the beginning of 1989 chairman of the twelve Port of Liverpool Ladies'guilds, Mrs Mary Bibby, asked each guild to make one extra effort on top of their normal fund raising to aid the Mersey Lifeboat Appeal for a new lifeboat at Hoylake.

In February of this year Mrs Bibby was delighted to hand over to Sir Kenneth Oxford, chairman of the appeal, a cheque £1,205. All the more gratifying since the guilds had already raised £83,223 for the Institution's general funds during 1989. Top box The winner of the New Milton/Barton-On- Sea branch Top Box Competition last year was the La Dolce Vita Restaurant in New Milton.

The Roderick Cup is competed for annually by all local shops, restaurants, pubs and so on who hold an RNLI collecting box and is awarded to the box which collects the most money. The trophy for 1989 was presented to Mrs Theresa Minardi of La Dolce Vita - whose box held £ 118 - at the annual general meeting of the branch in January.

There are more than 100 boxes over the whole branch area and the sum collected last year amounted to £ 1,410.

The New Milton & Barton branch raised a total of £15,950 in 1989 through a variety of events ranging from lifeboat week collections, coffee mornings, jumble sales, barbecue lunches and a summer fair held in the grounds of the Cliff House Hotel looking out to the Isle of Wight - this event raised a splendid £2,400.

Lions and sailors take a ducking A duck race was held by the Reading Lions Club in conjunction with the Thames Valley Cruising Club. No less than 2,500 plastic ducks were dropped from a bridge into the Rennet and Avon canal and floated downstream for 200 yards.

Three prizes were awarded for the winning ducks, which were all sponsored by the general public for charity. The Thames Valley Cruising Club donated their part of the collection, amounting to £200, to the RNLI.

Slippery slope There have been many methods of raising money for the new Jersey lifeboat but Jersey school teacher Josephine Lakeman's contribution could be unique. She took part in the 42km Engadin cross-country ski marathon in Switzerland this March, completing the arduous event in 3 hours 12 mins.

With sponsorship from her family, friends and colleagues Josephine raised a magnificent £900.

Boat boost Shoreham Harbour lifeboat appeal has received a boost in the form of £8,000 from the Ancient Orderof Foresters Friendly Society.

Mr Jim Howes. High Chief Ranger of the Order presented the cheque to Mr John Harrison, who is chairman of both the Shoreham Harbour station branch and the Shoreham Harbour appeal committee, as well as being a member of the RNLI's committee of management. Marathon men... and woman The chairman of Littlehampton fund raising branch, Anthony Williamson, was lucky to be awarded one of twelve places offered by The Times/Unisys London marathon appeal. Anthony had not been able to get a place in the original draw but the Shoreham Harbour lifeboat appeal was judged one of the twelve most deserving fund raising causes to support and won one of the 12 places allocated to The Times.

Anthony finished in under four hours, a personal best, and apart from getting cramp at 23 miles and the nation seeing his leg being rubbed on television, he was able to get round without stopping. He has so far raised £4,000 for the appeal.

Another competitor, David Stratford, honorary treasurer of Croydon branch, has completed three London Marathons, including the 1990 event, and through private sponsorship from his family, friends and fellow members has donated £ 1.750 to branch funds.

A lady runner, Miss Janine Long, took part in the Poole Marathon and completed the course in 4 hrs 38 mins. In doing so she raised £450 which will be used to buy equipment for the Poole lifeboat. Thanks must also go to Coxswain Steve Vince, who ran with her and encouraged her over the last four miles. Janine is the girl friend of one of the crew members of Poole lifeboat.

In brief THE CROWNDALE Orchestra gave its services free for an evening of nautical music at the Institute Hall in Hampstead. Organised by Hampstead Garden Suburb branch the programme started with The Hebrides Overture, followed by the Pineapple Poll Suite, pieces from South Pacific and concluded with a rousing Rule Britannia, with the audience joining in vociferously! This very enjoyable evening raised a splendid £ 1,089.

DURING London Lifeboat Week (his year the management of the Broadway Shopping Centre in Bexleyheath once again allowed the Bexleyneath branch to have a stall in the centre for three days. The sale of souvenirs and the contents of the collecting box amounted to almost £700 which, in addition to the normal street collection, raised a record £3,126.

A CHEQUE for £103.60 was received at headquarters from Mr I.M. Wright of the Wimbome Lodge of the Loyal Order of Moose.

The Order is dedicated to raising monies for charity and to raise this amount Mr Wright volunteered to attend a function in 'unusual' evening dress if he was sponsored. People's imagination ran wild, concocting all sorts of attire, but in fact he wore his kilt plus all accessories! HARTLEPOOL lifeboat station received a cheque for £300 from the Prudential Assurance Company recently. They had generously sponsored the Hartlepool Scottish Country Dance Group who gave a dancing display in aid of the Hartlepool branch. A question of money There was a record attendance of 220 supporters and friends at the Lifeboat Family Evening organised by the Woodbridge and District branch at Woodbridge community hall.

The guests of honour from Lowestoft lifeboat station, honorary secretary Mike Chapman, Coxswain John Catchpole and Emergency Mechanic David Barnard, took part in a Question and Answer session. The audience, which included the Mayor, Councillor N. Twigg, got some idea of what it was like to be at the 'sharp end' during a rescue at night in atrocious conditions.

An RNLI film was shown, souvenirs were sold, the Lifeboat Enthusiasts' Society showed some excellent models and a 'Where did the lifeboat go?' competition tested the skills of many sailors present.

All told, the evening raised £700, which included £180 from the auction of a tapestry by Catherine Clarke. In addition the ladies of Wickham Market Flower Club kindly donated the flowers for auction from their splendid floral arrangement in the foyer.

Spitfire shoot-out The Spitfire Shoot, Stockbridge, held its second annual RNLI Challenge Shoot (clay pigeons) in April and raised £ 1,321 for Stockbridge branch.

Organised by Peter Harding, 13 teams competed for the RNLI Challenge Trophy, shooting eight sporting stands and finishing with a 100-bird flush. This year the victors were Nigel Handscombe's team of pig farmers, some of whom had travelled from Cheshire.

Presentations were made by Councillor Maurice Jones, chairman of Hampshire County Council and Rear Admiral Graham, chairman of Stockbridge branch, received the cheque. A plop in the ocean! A village gala organised by Mrs Ruddock, a committee member of the Lincolnshire lifeboat appeal, provided its visitors with a novel attraction and raised £2,054 for the appeal.

An area of the site was scaled down and put on a map. Visitors were then invited to pay 50p for each section of the area until every space had been sold. Then came the interesting bit! A pony was allowed into the allocated area to roam at will until the time came for ponies to do what ponies must naturally do. The area of the site first used by the pony was judged to be the winning section, and the owner of the relevant ticket won a prize! Another similar contest was organised in Devon by the Port Isaac branch but this time the animal was a cow! The event, which included a buffet lunch held afterwards at a nearby hotel, raised over £500 for branch funds.

(We do not believe we have carried a report of this inventive tvpe of fundraising before, and it is a curious coincidence that it is mentioned in Edward Wake-Walker's account of American fund raising on page 2 74 of this issue - Ed) Rags to riches For the past few years the Honley & Brockholes branch have taken part in the Huddersfield Polytechnic Rag Parade.

When the students have a share-out at the end of the day the branch receives a donation for taking part, and over the last two years the students have provided £350..