Volunteers recognised for 20 years service

Making the decision to become a volunteer lifeboat crew member is a huge commitment. On joining, the members agree to run to the call of the pager day or night, 365 days a year, often leaving occasions with friends and family or rising from their beds in the depths of the night. Yet despite these sacrifices many make the RNLI part of their lives and remain volunteer crew for many years. Last month two of the crew at Swanage, Colin Marks and Dave Turnbull have received long service awards from the RNLI for 20 years voluntary service.

 

Colin (left) and Dave (right)

Colin and Dave joined the crew a month apart with Dave joining in December 1992 and Colin in January 1993. Since then they have been involved in more than 1400 rescues to aid those in trouble at sea.

Colin joined as a volunteer lifeboat crew member on both the inshore and all-weather lifeboats, retiring from the inshore lifeboat in 2003. Colin has become one of the all-weather lifeboat assistant mechanics that are on hand to monitor and maintain the lifeboat whilst at sea. This role also sees him volunteering an extra evening every week to perform maintenance of the lifeboat so that it is always ready to go to sea. In his time as a crew member at Swanage Colin has clocked up more than 1000 hours at sea on rescues with over half of them being during the hours of darkness.

During Dave’s years of voluntary service he has also served on both the inshore and all-weather lifeboats at Swanage. 10 years after joining the lifeboat crew Dave took on the role of fulltime station mechanic in February 2002. Dave therefore commits both his work time and personal time to the RNLI’s service of saving lives at sea. Dave is also currently one of the second Coxswains on the all-weather lifeboat as well as one of the volunteer mechanics. Over the years Dave has been involved in more than 840 rescues, totalling more than 1400 hours at sea with over 800 of those being in darkness.

The awards were presented to Colin and Dave at the Swanage Lifeboat Station to honour their voluntary commitment and dedication to the RNLI. Lifeboat Operations Manager, Captain Neil Hardy commended Colin and Dave on their achievement saying “you cannot put a value on the contributions volunteers such as Colin and Dave have made to the RNLI and the part they have played is rescuing those in trouble around our coastline. Their experience and dedication is testament to the Institution and our community.” Recognising that this level of commitment to the RNLI is not possible without the support of those around you, Cheryl and Angela, the wives of Colin and Dave respectively were presented with a small token of appreciation for their patience and understanding over the many years of service.



Swanage RNLI Fundraising marathon begins!

As the volunteer lifeboat crew gathered for their recent crew meeting it soon became clear that the next couple of years are going to be busy, with lots of changes afoot on all fronts.

Not only are we embarking on our biggest fundraising challenge in many years, as we aim to raise money towards our brand new lifeboat station, but amongst this five of the crew are getting married this year!

So in between the rescues and weddings, we have some ambitious plans to come up with many new and challenging fundraising ideas to help reach our target.

Our first crew member to jump to the challenge is volunteer lifeboat crewman Neil Brooks who will be running the Virgin London Marathon with his wife Tracy in aid of the Swanage Lifeboat Station Appeal. Having previously run the London Marathon for the RNLI in 2009 Neil felt that having recently joined the Swanage lifeboat crew it seem like a good time to do it again!

 

Neil has already nearly raised £100 sponsorship for each mile of the route and is hoping to generate £3000 for his efforts. If you can help him along the way please visit is sponsorship page www.virginmoneygiving.com/neilbrooks or drop in your sponsorship to the Swanage Lifeboat shop, or Swanage Lifeboat Station.

With Neil already setting the bar so high his fellow crew members and the community volunteers will be working hard to maintain this high standard throughout the appeal.

Good luck to Neil and Tracy!

Bowled over

The final of the RNLI Indoor Bowls Competition took place recently. Now in its fourth year the successful team were presented with their trophy by Swanage Indoor Bowls Chairman Mr Terry Buck.

The winning team of Paul & Carole Knapman and Peter Foster won a tightly fought final on an extra end. All the participants some 40 through the season were thanked by Swanage Lifeboat Chairman Peter Foster for helping to raise the great sum of £560.

An egg-cellent way to support the RNLI

With Easter approaching why not support the RNLI by purchasing one of our Easter Chicks from the Lifeboat Shop, The Square, Swanage, BH19 2LJ

The chicks are knitted by members of the Swanage Lifeboat Fundraisers and each one contains a delicious Cadburys creme egg. We're very grateful to Sainsburys in Wareham for donating the eggs, this means that the chicks are 100% profit and all the proceeds can go to the RNLI.

If you have a little spare time and would like to get involved with our fundraisers then drop them an email - enquiries@slbf.org.uk

Mamma Mia! What a result!

This time last week, we were gathered at The Old Malthouse at Langton Matravers, singing along in great voice to Mamma Mia! on the big screen. It was a great evening with an outstanding turnout and some of the costumes were fabulous!

Now we've counted the pennies and pounds, and are thrilled to tell you that your support for Swanage RNLI raised an incredible £752! We are so grateful - yet again, the Swanage community rallied together in fine form to support our local lifeboat. So thank you for your generosity - we hope you enjoyed the evening as much as we did.

We'd love to hear your feedback on the evening and how you think it could be improved on if we held it again, so please do get in touch with any comments or ideas - leave a message on our Facebook page or email enquiries@slbf.org.uk.

Take a chance on a great night out

Calling all super troupers and dancing queens! The Swanage Lifeboat Fundraisers are sending out an SOS: you’re invited to join us from 6.30pm on Friday 15 February at the Old Malthouse in Langton Matravers for a Mamma Mia! sing-along evening.

The ‘name of the game’ is a viewing of the hit 2008 musical – with a difference: everyone is positively encouraged to join in and sing along!

There’ll be an optional ABBA fancy dress theme for the night and a prize up for grabs for the best outfits, so don your highest platforms and simply say ‘I do, I do, I do, I do, I do’, and help raise funds for your local lifeboat while enjoying a great evening out.

Children are very welcome at this family-friendly event and soft drinks will be on sale throughout the evening, but guests are free to bring their own alcoholic drinks.

For those feeling lucky, we'll also be holding a raffle with plenty of locally-sourced prizes.

Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased from the RNLI shop in Swanage town centre, as well as Corbens Estate Agents and at the door on the night – adult tickets cost £8 each and child/concession tickets are just £5.

So why not opt for a Valentine’s Day treat with a difference? Just make sure your mother knows that you’re out! For more information, email enquiries@slbf.org.uk.

SOS Day 2013 - the results!

For those of you who joined us on Saturday to have your car washed, sample a bacon butty or a slap-up, homemade lunch, you'll know that our volunteers were out in force at the weekend for SOS Day, the RNLI's annual day of fundraising.

The lifeboat crew were out in the chilly January air, scrubbing cars clean in exchange for donations; several dedicated fundraising volunteers held a collection outside the supermarket; and a whole gang of volunteers from the Swanage Lifeboat Fundraisers held a charity lunch - even the local scouts got together to provide some delicious homemade puds!

It was fantastic to see our community rally together to show such support for its local lifeboat, and we're absolutely thrilled to say that you raised a whopping £1,710 - a phenomenal achievement! We're incredibly grateful to everyone who donated both time and money - thank you.

So, now we turn our attentions to our next fundraising event: a Mamma Mia! sing-along night on Friday 15 February in Langton Matravers! We'll be bringing you details of that very soon so keep your eyes peeled...