Supporting the Community – Surviving Christmas Update

Nov 28, 2019

It’s time for an update on the Surviving Christmas collection point at the Pett Level Independent Rescue Boat base.

The good news is that our boat house has seen quite a few extra visitors over the Sundays in November as we attempt to support a charity that does great work in the local area. We’ve been offering our services as a drop-off point for donations of provisions for Surviving Christmas and we’re glad to reveal that, as our collection is being picked up on Sunday 8th December, we’re now also going to be open for donations on Sunday 1st and up until about 10.30 on Sunday 8th December.

Helping us support a charity – and fill up our collection box!

Surviving Christmas sets out to provide festive cheer to individuals and families struggling with hardship by distributing provisions and festive fayre. There are several collection points across the local Rother area, as mentioned when we announced that the boat house was going to be a collection point throughout November. But the great news is that if you’ve been meaning to donate some provisions but haven’t had the time, then it’s still possible to do so. The success so far of our Pett base as a collection point shows that goodwill is abundant in the area and that having a closer-than-Hastings collection point is useful not only for the Pett community but also for Surviving Christmas.

Food item donations are welcome, but please remember that these need to be non-perishable and should have a Best Before date which lasts throughout the Christmas and New Year period. Types of items you might want to bring are shown on the image below which is from the Surviving Christmas website.

 

So just to remind you, you’ll be welcome to drop off suitable items on:

  • Sunday 1st December – from 9.00 – 12.00
  • Sunday 8th December – from 9.00 – 10.30 approx.

As the donations to us are being collected on Sunday 8th December, if any company or group would like to come down with a significant donation for Surviving Christmas, this would be most welcome on this day as we won’t have a problem storing it. It also means that you’ll have the chance for a photo opportunity with us for your social media.

It’s great to work together with the community to support a charity that works so hard in the local area over Christmas and thank you once again to everyone who has contributed to this.

Asda St. Leonards Green Token Scheme Success

Nov 27, 2019

Here’s a follow up to some of our previous posts about the support we’ve been receiving from Asda St. Leonards and in particular from their Green Token Scheme.

Asda’s Green Token Scheme involves shoppers receiving a token, which they can choose to put into one of three collection points. Each of the collection points is for a different charity. At the end of the campaign, each charity receives a cash donation from Asda, depending on where they finished in the competition. Throughout this Autumn, one of the charities nominated was Pett Level Independent Rescue Boat.

Asda hosts the Green Token Scheme as part of their regular charitable giving for community causes, and we were pleased to be runners up for this Autumn, with a prize donation of £200 from Asda.

The photo shows PLIRB Trustees John Pulfer and John Brooker receiving the donation on behalf of the Pett Level Independent Rescue Boat.

Overall, we’ve received some amazing and very generous support from Asda, St. Leonards and its customers this year … and it’s not over yet. Just as they did back in the summer, Asda have invited us back up to the store on Saturday 7th December to host a donation collection point. This time around, as well as spreading the word about sea safety we’re also going to be spreading a bit of Christmas cheer with our calendars and cards for sale, so please do come and see us to say hello.

Once again, we’d like to say a huge thank you so much once to Asda, the staff at Asda St. Leonards and to everyone who has supported us through Asda’s charitable giving schemes – this support from our local communities is much appreciated.

Support from the Community – Several Thank Yous!

Nov 25, 2019

We’ve been humbled by the level of community support we’ve received lately, to boost our fundraising, so this post is dedicated to updating our followers on recent donations and events.

It’s amazing really, because much of our fundraising takes place in the summer, but throughout this Autumn the community around us – from local organisations to local branches of national companies – have continued to hold events and to raise funds for us.

Independent by name, but we do depend on being able to raise funds to stay afloat

As an independent rescue boat, we have to raise all running costs ourselves and do rely on donations and support. With just a small team of our own fundraisers (many of whom double up as boat and base crews) it’s fantastic for us when others run fundraising events on our behalf.

This kind of support has really taken off this year, including throughout the past few weeks, so we’re very happy to share what some of our supporters have achieved for us:

 

  • Elm Tree Bootsale have donated £1,000 raised from their regular bootsales over the 2019 season.
  • Old Town Street Traders in Hastings have raised £5,000 for us across summer events in Hastings Old Town (as seen in the photo above).
  • We’ve received £200 thanks to Asda and their Green Token Scheme, where shoppers voted us into the runner up position as a chosen local charity.
  • Local branches of Co-op in Ore Village and Winchelsea Beach have raised a significant amount for us thanks to their loyalty scheme and through donation pots in their stores.
  • We’ve also received over £200 thanks to Dominic Varley who signed his employer up to Payroll Giving on behalf of the Pett Level Independent Rescue Boat.
  • Ye Olde 1066 Charity Group (part of the 1066 Bikers) held a fundraising quiz for us and raised £69 (photo below of the PLIRB team in action).

There are also several more fundraisers coming up before the end of the year – the next ones being the Ocean Ceramics Open Studio event in Winchelsea Beach next week and another in-store fundraiser at Asda, St. Leonards on 7th December 2019, so it’s not too late to get involved in supporting us by coming along to a fundraising event.

As ever, we are extremely grateful for all amounts raised – whether small or large, every penny counts. And of course, the support we’ve received throughout 2019 is much wider than those listed in this post. Our dedicated thank you page is coming soon but to everyone who has supported us this year, a heartfelt thank you.  

Support from the Community – Ocean Ceramics, Winchelsea Beach

Nov 17, 2019

We’re very pleased to share that local ceramic artist Marian Mason is supporting the Pett Level Independent Rescue Boat as part of her upcoming festive Open Studio event.

Marian’s Ocean Ceramics Festive Open Studio takes place on Saturday 30th November and Sunday 1st December, from 11 am to 5 pm each day. This charity fundraising event will be held at Marian’s studio at 7, Windmill Way, Winchelsea Beach, TN36 4LF.

As with Marian’s previous Open Studio Mad Hatter’s event back in the summer, Marian is holding her festive charity fundraising event to raise money for both the PLIRB and St. Michael’s Hospice. There will be mince pies and mulled wine, the opportunity to buy some of Marian’s fabulous ceramic creations, her wonderful Ghost of Camber Castle children’s book and additional items.

Marian is also hosting some of the PLIRB merchandise, including our greetings cards and 2020 calendars, so if you are hoping to buy some of these, please do take the opportunity to visit the Ocean Ceramics Open Studio and help raise money for community causes whilst you’re there. A huge thank you to Marian for holding this event, it really is appreciated.

Supporting the Community – Surviving Christmas Collection Point

Nov 9, 2019

Just a reminder that on Sunday mornings through November, the Pett Level Independent Rescue Boat venue is open as a collection point for items to be donated to Surviving Christmas.

Surviving Christmas is a local charity which provides support to individuals and families in need over the winter and festive period, across our local Hastings and Rother District area.

Surviving Christmas does have collection points in the local area, but as these are mainly in Hastings and as we’re always down at the base on Sunday mornings, it makes sense to offer those who live in our area the chance to make their donations to a local collection point.

The important thing about these food item donations is that the items should be non-perishable and should of course have a long enough date that they will still be in date over the Christmas / New Year period. To help, the next image is of information from  the Surviving Christmas website, listing the kinds of provisions that would be appreciated. If you’d like to know more, there’s plenty of additional information on the charity’s website and social media.

 

We know there are many friends of Pett Level Independent Rescue Boat who would be happy to help make a difference to someone else’s Christmas, so we’d be grateful if you could pass the message on about our collection point?

It’s great to work together with the community on this, and we’re very grateful to be receiving donations throughout November. We’ll share the progress of the box of goodies weekly on our social media, so please follow along and stay involved. Thank you!