St Ives RNLI car wash raises vital funds
6:00am Wednesday 27th February 2013 in News
Crew, shorecrew, wives and girlfriends washing cars. Credit: RNLI/Derek Hall
Everyone at St Ives lifeboat station lent a hand last weekend to support the station's SOS fundraising day, and help raise an impressive £2,560 towards the station's new Launch and Recovery vehicle.
At the event, on Saturday, February 16, wives and girlfriends washed cars there was a family atmosphere all day long.
As well as the car wash, there were also stalls, a tombola and food available in the boathouse, with Pels of St Ives providing the soup and The Lifeboat Inn providing bacon baps for us to sell.
The boat house was filled with people browsing the stalls and drinking tea, coffee or hot chocolate made by the Ladies Guild.
St Ives lifeboat station mechanic Robert Cocking said: "We must have cleaned hundreds of cars, there was a constant flow - we even had a truck come along to be cleaned and a push chair so nothing was too big or too small.
"Our wives and girlfriends also decided to get stuck in this year too, and after putting all the gear on got down to washing cars with the crew all afternoon.
"It was great to have everyone pitching in and having fun together and it made the afternoon just fly by."
The crew were also presented with new jackets to wear, donated by Aspects Holidays of St Ives.
The total raised during the day was well in excess of last year's total and all funds raised will stay at St Ives Lifeboat Station towards the new campaign for the Launch and Recovery vehicle for their new Shannon class lifeboat.
Suzanne Tanner, fundraising manager for the station said: "We have to give a huge thank you to everyone involved from the crew, the guild, our operations team and all the businesses, family and friends involved for making this such a huge success.
"Everyone worked incredibly hard all day long, making this a wonderful start to our new fundraising appeal for the Launch and Recovery vehicle needed for our new Shannon class lifeboat due here in around two years time."
