NEWS JAN18
Dear Supporters
I would like to wish you a Very Happy New Year and say a big “THANK YOU’ for your continued support during the past year. The amount that has been raised by the Appledore Lifeboat Supporters in 2017 is a fantastic total of £49,573.36. All the money raised has come from events organised by the Fund Raising Guild, and also from local organisations, individual donations, box and bucket collections outside Tesco’s and Morrison’s in Bideford as well as from bequests made to us
I would like to thank everyone who supported our many events during the year, and to all those who came along and gave their time and helped with the various events and collections. Your help is invaluable and very much appreciated.
We are pleased to tell you that we have a new Chairman, Pat Hughes, who has been on the Committee for a number of years, and was previously Hon. Secretary.
We would like to thank Phil Sargent for organising the box collectors and thank them for all for their hard work and support. The monies which they have raised from the boxes in the local community is an important part of our fund raising efforts, and is greatly appreciated. During 2017 a total of £7,891.47 was raised from the boxes.
A big thank you to Shooey McCall and her great team of volunteers for making such a successful job of Souvenir Sales both at the Station and also at the many outside events. Their help makes a massive difference to the fundraising for our Station, and last year they raised in excess of £4,929. If you would like to help with the sales of Souvenirs, please do let me know on 01271 861 291
NEWS FROM THE LIFEBOAT STATION: There was an increase in activity in 2017 over the previous year with 60 launches in 2017 as opposed to 48 in 2016. One life was saved, 15 people were assisted who would have got into a more serious situation without assistance and the crew had the unpleasant task of recovering 3 bodies.
Around 75% of the launches were for services within the estuary and both the Taw and Torridge rivers. The station has seen a significant increase over the last couple of years in the volume of launches for potential or actual suicides and searches for missing persons with mental health problems.
In October the Lifeboat Operations Manager – Wendy Dale retired after some 13 years of service and she will be sorely missed by many. Her replacement as the Lifeboat Operations Manager is Tony Merrill.
The main Fund-raising events held in 2017 were as follows:-
SOS DAY - This took place at the Appledore Lifeboat Station on January 28th and was a great success as always with Ian Hudson and his musical friends, who entertained us with Sea Shanties. We would like to thank Heard’s butchers of Westward Ho! who donated the sausages for the hotdogs, and to everyone who made the Shortbread, and all those who came along and enjoyed the day. The Lifeboat Crew were the chefs for the day, and £285.00 was raised
QUIZ AND SUPPER - This was held at St Mary’s Church Hall on 17th February, and was a very successful evening raising £1,400.00
FUN EVENING OF FASHION, BEAUTY AND MUSIC - This was a new event that was held at St Mary’s Church Hall. It was good fun evening, thank you to the RNLI Ladies for modelling the clothes, which were kindly loaned by Bon Marchè of Barnstaple, and also the lady members of the Lifeboat Crew who modelled their uniforms. Thank you to Natalie for her lovely music. We raised £600.00 and hope to run this event again in spring 2018.
BIG SHEEP EVENT – Growing Old Disgracefully, for recycled teenagers - This was an exciting new event, and proved to be a lot of fun, and we would like to thank the ‘Big Sheep’ for putting on this fun evening. We raised £785.00 and we will be holding this event again during May 2018 and hope a lot of you will come along and have fun without the children!
BOAT JUMBLE AND CAR BOOT SALE - Due to bad weather, this event was cancelled twice, however we are hoping to go ahead in 2018, with the back-up plan of using the Skern Lodge Hall. It was disappointing, but beyond our control.
TEA AT TAPELEY PARK - We were extremely lucky with the great weather last August for this annual event, we had a good number of visitors and just over £1,000.00 was raised. We served cream teas and had the Torridge Male Voice Choir to entertain us. Along with the Border Morris Dancers, always popular. Also thank you to the Kenwith Model Boat Club for coming along once again with their lovely collection of models.
STATION-to-STATION SPONSORED WALK - We had another disappointment with this event which we were advised to cancel by the Coastguards, due to so much rain the footpath was considered unsafe. However, we would like to thank those wonderful walkers who came and did the walk at other times, and still managed to raise £2,816.00. We will have a backup plan if we experience bad weather again this year, so please if you are likely to want to enter for the walk in 2018, please be assured it will be on.
OCTOBER SEAFOOD MEALS - We had a great number of pubs and restaurants in the area, who participated in this, and we raised £782.74, thank you to everyone who joined into this event.
THE ART SHOW - this was held at the North Devon Yacht Club from 19 – 22nd October, and was once a wonderful exhibition. We would like to thank Judith James for organising this event for us. It is a very prestigious event enjoyed by all and raised £3,128.94. This figure includes the money raised by ‘THE ACORNS’ who gave a Concert after the show on the evening of 26th October and once again thanks to Ian Hudson and the Acorns for their great performance.
QUIZ AND SUPPER - This was held on 17th November at the Appledore Community Hall, and was once again well attended, and enjoyed by all. We thank Sally Hughes and her team for providing a lovely Lasagne Meal. Thank you to Dennis and Julie Ford for compiling the questions and being quiz masters for the evening. We raised nearly £900. Thank you to everyone for their help and support.
CHRISTMAS CONCERT - This was held at the Lifeboat Station with music provided by the Appledore Silver Band and the Appledore Lifeboat Choir. Mulled Wine and mince pies were served and £206.26 was raised by a bucket collection. A lovely start to the Christmas Season.
WHAAM CONCERTS - There were two main ones this last year. One held in March and one in September. We would like to thank John Barton for organising these events and raising over £1,194.35. These events were thoroughly enjoyed by both the musicians and the audience, and were well supported. The concerts will be held again in 2018, so hopefully you will be able to come along and have a great night out.
We had two ‘Volunteer Recruitment Coffee Mornings’, which prompted some new volunteers both to join the Fundraising Guild and also the Lifeboat Crew. We always need help with the Fund Raising Events, and if you think you have a little time to spare, please come along and join us, you will be made very welcome and also be much appreciated.
CHANGES TO THE GUILD COMMITTEE:
It is with great sadness that due to ill health our Treasurer Richard Stone, is standing down at the end of this financial year. Richard has been on our Fundraising Committee for 23 years, and has been Treasurer for 14 of those. Richard has done a fantastic job in his role as Treasurer, and has done much more besides, organising collection buckets and flags, and even making the mulled wine for the Carol Concert. Richard also organised and ran the Art Show for nearly 20 years. We would like to thank Richard for all of his dedication and hard work and, we would like him to know that he will be very greatly missed. However on the plus side, we are pleased to announce that Richard has accepted the post of Vice President, so hopefully, he will still be around and part of our fundraising efforts, for which we are grateful. From the 1 February 2018, our new Treasurer will be John Wilson, who may be contacted on 01271 860918, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
We also are saying farewell to Sally Hughes. Sally has been on the Committee for 14 years, and has been our main catering organiser at all our events, many of you will have enjoyed her wonderful meals during the past. We wish Sally all the best in the future.
Once again we would like to thank you all for your support throughout the year. The funding of the Appledore Lifeboat and the RNLI is vital to maintaining the wonderful work that they do on a voluntary basis both ashore and at sea, where the crews often risk their lives in all weathers to rescue people at sea, from our beaches and also our rivers
If you wish to make a donation towards our fundraising, and to help cover the cost of this newsletter, please send your cheque made out to RNLI Appledore to me, along with the completed form overleaf. We would also ask you to update any e-mail addresses, home addresses and telephone numbers to keep our records straight. Please email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
If you no longer wish to receive information about forthcoming events, please let me know on 01271 861 291 and I will delete you from our mailing list. We only wish to inform you of any activities you may wish to support, the list of proposed fundraising events is attached.
Yours sincerely
Sandy Peace - Honorary Secretary. (Home telephone number 01271 861 291)
EVENTS. 2019
26th Jan SOS Day @the Lifeboat Station 11-2pm
22/23rd Feb Possible music event
29th March Quiz at the Appledore Community centre 7:30pm
10th May Big Sheep Event - Adults Behaving Badly 6:30pm Doors open
15th June Fashion Show @St Marys Church Hall 7-7:30pm
7th July Sea Sunday @The Lifeboat Station, with Appledore Silver Band
5-15th Appledore regatta week
17th August Tea at Tapley Park. Cream Teas 2-4:30pm
19th Appledore carnival
Sept Clovelly to Appledore sponsored walk TBC
Sept Senior Wham Concert 7pm TBC
4th Oct Fish Supper St Mary's Hall 7-730pm
24th-27th Oct Ian Hudson & Acorns in concert @North Devon Yacht Club 7:30pm
15th Nov Quiz @ The Appledore Community Hall 7:30pm
1st Dec Christmas Carols with Appledore Silver Band. 2:30pm@the Lifeboat Station