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Jacqui Crowe
SE9 raised more than £4,000 for the RNLI this year.
Jacqui Crowe learns about how it’s spent and
appeals for more volunteer fund raisers.
yellow ‘oilies’ around Eltham. Collections
were held in the High Street, stations,
schools, house to house and at
It’s
August. School holidays are in circumstances. Those rescued range
full flow. With luck we may be from swimmers and leisure craft users in
Sainsbury’s. It seems SEniners are a
having some good summer weather difficulty to fishermen and commercial
generous lot as £4,532.51 was raised,
and days at the seaside. vessels in distress. For commercial
which exceeded expectations.
fishermen the RNLI has developed an
automatic satellite alert system, fitted
Of course, the collections also need
in 200 vessels to date, which helps in
volunteers to carry them out and this is
locating their vessels in times of distress.
done in our area by the Welling, Eltham
and Sidcup Branch. Once, there were
Often the lifeboats will perform rescues
in conjunction with the Coastguard, RAF
Air Sea Rescue and other emergency
services.
The impressive record (See box), all
2008
Launched its lifeboats or hovercrafts
One of the attractions in many seaside
8,293 times
towns is the Royal National Lifeboat
Institute station. It’s usually open to the
Rescued 7,612 persons (22 persons a
day)
public and a great attraction to children
who like to climb aboard and explore
Operated 235 lifeboat stations
the boats, while the adults read about
the station, its history and rescues.
Beach rescues:
Saved 49 lives
While the RNLI is a charity well known
Attended 9,536 incidents
for its lifeboat rescues, it is less well
Helped 11,027 people
three branches, each with an active set
known for its lifeguards who patrol 110
of volunteers.
beaches in the popular holiday areas
of North Norfolk, Devon, Cornwall and carried out by volunteers. However,
Unfortunately volunteers in Eltham and
Pembrokeshire. only highly trained volunteers can take
Sidcup are in short supply and so these
part in rescues. Training costs money as
two branches have been subsumed by
In recent years, with the advent of does the provision and maintenance
Welling. Two Elthamites who are still
climate change, flooding incidents have of all the vessels and equipment used.
active are Pam and Keith Thompson.
become more common in the UK. The And so the RNLI, which is totally funded
They and the Welling volunteers would
RNLI Flood Rescue team assists in these by donations, holds appeal weeks each
welcome more help for the SE9 area. It is
incidents too such as the 2008 Morpeth year raising funds via street collections.
hoped to revive fundraising activities in
floods.
Eltham too, such as quiz nights so look
This year, the Greater London Appeal
out for details in the events calendar.
The RNLI is a much-loved charity, week began in May. It is the most
Even if you can’t volunteer perhaps you
perhaps because of the selflessness financially lucrative fundraising ‘tool’
could support these events. If you can
of the volunteers who carry out the which supports the RNLI in saving lives
help in any way contact Alan Ashby on
rescues, often in extremely gruelling at sea. You may have seen people in
020 8304 5670.
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