PLIRB 2022 Calendar Photo Competition Fundraiser

Mar 2, 2021

Remember we promised that the next Pett Level Independent Rescue Boat calendar would be a little different?

Well, here’s the plan … instead of us taking our own photos for our 2022 fundraiser calendar, we’d love to invite our friends, supporters and everyone across our Sussex coastal and inland communities to submit their photos , as we launch our fabulous PLIRB Calendar 2022 photo competition!

 

Now, we know there are lots of beautiful local images out there because we see them on social media! Already in 2021 we’ve seen stunning snow, striking sunrises, scenic sunsets, beautiful beach shots and a magnificent Snow Moon … all taken around and about our lovely local area!

So, we’re hoping others will feel inspired to contribute photos for our competition. The  12 months of the year make it easy to find a seasonal category to suit your shot and mean we can offer 12 prizes. But hey, as we like to do things a little differently, we’re pleased to say there’s also an overall winner prize up for grabs too!

* 12 winning photos will be chosen, with each winner’s photo featuring as the month’s image in our 2022 calendar – one chosen from each category.

* Each winner will also receive two free copies of the calendar as their prize.

* One overall competition winner will be chosen and will receive a canvas print of their winning shot.

The competition runs from March 1st to September 30th 2021, but the month / category you choose doesn’t have to be the month your photo was taken – it just has to suit the season. So, if you feel your snowy shingle and sand shot taken this February is rather Christmassy, you could enter it in the December category – it’s up to you!

WHAT ARE THE RULES?

* You can enter up to 3 images.

* Images should be in landscape format and a minimum size / quality of 4MB please.

* The file name of the photo should include: the location of the shot, the photographer’s name; the month of the category you’re entering, eg: PettLevel_ASmith_Dec.

* Each entry should be accompanied by a donation to PLIRB, please. A minimum donation of £5 would be most welcome. Donations should be made through our dedicated calendar photo competition donation page.

* Photos of Pett Level will of course be a real focus (see what we did there?) but we also invite photos from all around our local coastal and inland rescue service vicinity. For example, views from across the Rye Harbour Nature Reserve, Ecclesbourne Glen, Fairlight, and Winchelsea Beach areas, plus there are stunning shots to be taken of the coastal views as seen from Icklesham, Udimore and Winchelsea.

* By entering our photo competition you are giving us permission to (a) share your entry on our website and social media (b) print your photograph in our calendar, if you are chosen as a winner.

Full terms and conditions for entering this competition are HERE.

TO ENTER:

1) Make your donation via the competition donation page (minimum £5 per entry) using the donation button. Add your name and the category (month) you’d like your photo to be considered for in the message part of the donation.  You could also add your own message if you’d like to – we love to hear from our supporters!

THEN …

2) Please send an email with your photo attached to plirbphotocomp@gmail.com.

Within the email please include:

* The category (month) you’re entering (just in case it’s missing off the file name).

* Name and contact details (including telephone number).

TIMELINE:

* The competition closes at 23:59 on Thursday 30th September 2021. After this, no more entries will be accepted and our judges will have the difficult task of choosing the winning photos.

* The winners will be announced in October 2021 (date to be confirmed once judges have been confirmed).

* Calendars will be printed and available from November 2021. Winners will be invited to visit our boathouse to receive their copies of the calendar as soon as these are available.

 

Sorry, but there has to be a little small print

Our work isn’t just about saving lives, it’s also about prevention and raising awareness about general and local beach safety. As such, we really want to be able to share local photographs. So, please understand that by entering this competition you’re giving us permission to share your photo online. Full credit will be given (unless you ask to be kept anonymous of course) and the copyright remains with you.

Our charity is all about saving lives and keeping our beaches and coastal areas safe from hazards and danger. It’s fair to say that once the third lockdown hit, meeting our £10,000 a year running costs has become a significant challenge – with our income from fundraising down 95% compared to 2019.

By submitting your photos and supporting our competition, you will literally be helping our charity to stay afloat and #rescueready so that we can continue saving lives at sea.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR INTEREST & YOUR SUPPORT

CLICK TO VISIT THE COMPETITION DONATION PAGE TO GET STARTED

Our 2021 Charity Raffle is Afloat – Thanks to Homewood Leisure

Jan 9, 2021

 With the pandemic continuing to keep our fundraising closed down, our volunteers are working hard to keep our self-funded charity afloat. And it’s fair to say that at times like this, help from the community and local businesses to meet our £10k a year running costs is much appreciated.

Which is why we’re very pleased to share that a local company, Homewood Leisure, have made us a very generous prize donation to enable us to run a fundraiser raffle for the first half of 2021.

Stuart Homewood, pictured with the Tonga Hot Tub and PLIRB volunteer, Tornado Helm Sarah Harris.

 Homewood Leisure is a Rye-based company, specialising in hot tubs, swimming pools and spas. After reading about our fundraising problems in the Rye News, owner Stuart Homewood decided to help with the launch of a special single-prize charity raffle fundraiser and has donated the star prize of a family-sized hot tub. We shared this wonderful news with Rye News just before Christmas and are now pleased to fill in some of the details here …

As cousin of one of our volunteers, Tornado Helm Sarah Harris, Stuart already has an interest in our charity. He also has a fishing boat down at Pett Level. Stuart’s also a member of the Hastings Winkle Club and as such he’s become very aware of the problems faced by local charities as a result of the pandemic.

“I was reading that it costs around £10,000 a year to fund the rescue boat so I thought, why not pop one of these out there?

It’s a £5,000 model so if we can sell enough tickets we could raise £10k, keep the boat funded for a year and give our support locally.”

Stuart Homewood, Homewood Leisure

Hot tub charity raffle details

* PRIZE HOT TUB * This amazing prize is a family-sized Tonga, 200cm x 200cm x 89cm, with electronics, cover, cover lifter, steps and chemical starter kit. This popular model usually retails at £4,999.00.

* PRIZE EXTRAS * Delivery and installation usually cost £250 each. However, if the prize winner lives within 20 miles of the Homewood Leisure retail space just outside Rye, delivery and installation could be included with the prize. This offer is subject to a site survey which would need to confirm a straightforward delivery and installation process. More complex deliveries, involving a hiab or other crane unit, would be subject to additional costs.

* TICKETS * Tickets cost just £2.50 each. They have been printed in books of 4 and can be sold in any combination. 1000 books have been printed, with the overall goal in mind of selling 4,000 tickets to help Stuart meet his aim of keeping our rescue boat afloat with a whole year of costs covered!

* TICKET SALES *Although the exciting plan for this raffle includes launching the raffle and selling raffle tickets from the PLIRB boathouse and from Homewood Leisure, the new year lockdown has of course made this impossible for the time being. However, in the meantime, a couple of essential local shops which are still open have offered to sell tickets for us. These are:

  • Fairlight Post Office & Stores
  • The Old Butcher’s Shop – Pett

* VOLUNTEERS * Tickets can also be obtained from our volunteers, so if you know a volunteer please ask!

* HOMEWOOD LEISURE * Tickets can also be obtained from Homewood Leisure – look out for them on social media!

* ONLINE TICKET SALES * To get things started in a safe way, we’ve set up an online system for ticket sales, using Give As You Live. Please visit the dedicated ticket sales / donation page for more information on how to buy your raffle tickets online.

The Grand Plan for the CHARITY RAFFLE Draw

The original grand plan was to draw this raffle at our Open Day in May. However, as a result of the prolonged New Year lockdown, the May date has been cancelled.

Instead, the draw will take place on Sunday 29th August 2021, the provisional date for a rescheduled open day.

If an outside gathering of an Open day is not allowed in August, Stuart will instead visit our boathouse on Sunday 29th August and make a socially distanced draw to find the lucky winner of this amazing prize, which we will Live Stream direct on social media.

Everyone involved with our charity is completely bowled over by Stuart’s generosity and would like to say a very big thank you to Stuart, as our charity’s Chair, Kev, explains:

“Along with lots of other charities this year, we’re struggling to raise funds to cover our operational costs.

This amazing prize donation has potential not only to raise the money we desperately need, but also to raise awareness of our charity’s work and of the costs involved in providing these life saving services.”

Kev Nuttall, PLIRB Charity Committee Chairperson

Would you like to help us with this very special charity raffle?

If any local retailers, companies, venues and social groups would like to sell tickets on our behalf, this would be very welcome.

Please email PLIRB fundraising volunteers at plirbfundraising@gmail.com

Or, message us via any of our social media platforms to express an interest.

If you’d like to help by sharing – please download the featured image at the top of this post and share on social media!

Thank you so much!

50p to Park Can Support A Charity, Thanks to Elm Tree Bootsale

Nov 1, 2020

Everyone here at Pett Level Independent Rescue Boat is pleased to say a heart-felt huge thank you to Kit and Jan McLean, of  Elm Tree Bootsale for their extremely welcome donation of £1,000 to our charity.

In this awful year, it’s been hard for us to fund raise in the community and it’s also been hard for the community to support a charity. However,  the parking fee contributed by visitors to the local Icklesham bootsale has meant life-saving support to us.

Of course, the Elm Tree bootsale itself has also been challenged by the pandemic. The prolonged lockdown and the restrictions on gatherings means that across the bootsale ‘season’ as a whole, bootsales were only able to take place 7 times at Elm Tree,  instead of the usual 14.

But as Kit and Jan are aware of our particular challenges this year, so they were keen that their annual donation to support a charity which is completely self-funded should still go ahead. 

After all, Kit and Jan have particular empathy for charities run by volunteers, where the donations are used to directly support the cause.  So, when visitors to the bootsale contribute a 50p parking fee, Kit and Jan donate this directly to local causes. As a result, across the 20+ years they have been running the Elm Tree Bootsale, Kit and Jan estimate they have raised and donated in the region of £100,000 to local charities.

 

“We try to do quite a bit for Five Villages Minibus, The MOPPs and the POPPs – our donation buys a Christmas dinner for local pensioners – Friends of the Conquest Hospital, Fairlight Playgroup, Rother Responders and other local charities.

We’re happy to be making this donation to support a charity like the PLIRB because it’s a local charity and it all helps local people. I was in the PLIRB crew many years ago and if we save one life, it’s worth it.”

Kit McLean

Our Treasurer, Stella Dunn, pictured with Kit and Jan McLean, said:

“We’re extremely grateful to Kit and Jan McLean for their continued support. The unexpected situation this year has caused us significant difficulties with fundraising to meet our running costs. This donation will really help to breach the real short-fall caused by not being able to hold our annual Open Day Fundraiser, due to lockdown. Specifically, this donation will be used for essential equipment repairs and replacements.

We’d also like to say thank you to the people who support the bootsale, either as a seller or a customer, as not many people realise that the parking fee at the bootsale helps to support community charities such as ours.”

WHILST YOU'RE HERE ...

As an independent charity providing rescue services, we are run solely by volunteers. 

We receive no government funding, so we have to fundraise every penny needed to buy and maintain our equipment and to pay our considerable running costs. 

Since the start of 2020, these have increased to over £10,000 a year.

If you would like to support us, your donation would really be appreciated as it will help us assist those in danger on our local coastline.

Thank you so much, from the volunteers at Pett Level Independent Rescue Boat.

Donations are welcome, thank you

Got a Pawfect Pet? Join Our Charity Photo Competition

Oct 2, 2020

With the pandemic closing down our community fundraising, and the ring-fence around the government’s support for charities being a complete barrier to us, it’s fair to say things are a bit hard going. However, we’ve had some brilliant help from our friends and we’ve been thinking creatively about ways to raise funds to meet our £10k a year running costs through other means.

Of course, even though no one is ‘out there’ for fun community events, there’s no reason why we can’t put a bit of FUN into our fundraising. And speaking of which, we’ve just launched our charity photo competition …

 

Yes, our Pawfect Pet Photo competition is under way! It all takes place online, so keeping everyone safe with no community face-to-face, but still a way to enjoy some fun with our friends!

And speaking of which, friend of the PLIRB charity, comedian Jo Brand, is going to be our virtual judge!

Honourary PLIRB pooch Seamus gives full details over on the Giving Page, but here’s also a general overview below.

There are 6 fun categories (and no, you don’t have to be a cat)!

* FLUFFIEST PET * includes those of you with fluffy feathers and even fleeces … if you’re fluffy, get your photo in!

* HELPFUL PET * whether you’re a qualified assistance animal, or a pet that’s super helpful around the home, garden or work, this could be the category for you. All it takes is a photo of you being helpful (whether you were invited to or not) and Jo will judge you!

* SCARY PET * scary and hairy, bald and blood-curdling, toothy and terrifying? Don’t worry, you have a place in our hearts and our competition. Even if you’re normally nice but you got caught on camera having a bad day, let’s see that scary side of you!

* HAPPIEST PET * because everyone knows a goldfish can smile, right? Whether it’s a toothy grin or a ‘caught-on-camera’ grimace, give us a smile for the camera!

* ALL-ACTION PET * got a shot of your pet going all out to get among the action? Then this is your category – please share!

* ONE OF THE FAMILY * are you a dog, cat, even a rabbit that resembles its owner? Perhaps you’re a goat that thinks it’s one of the kids? However it works, let’s have a look at those family photos. For this category though, please be sure you’re happy for the persons to be included please.

TO ENTER:

1) Please send an email with picture attached to plirbphotocomp@gmail.com and within the email please include:

* Pet name

* Category for entry

* Contact telephone number.

* Please could you also state if you are happy for the photo to be shared on our social media?

2) For each photo entry you submit, it would be fabulous if you could make a donation of £5 on the Giving Page. Just use the donation button and add the pet name and category to the message part of the donation. You could also add your own message if you’d like to – we love to hear from our supporters!

The competition closes at 5 pm on Sunday 11th October. After this, no more entries will be accepted and Judge Jo Brand will have the seriously hard task of choosing the Pawfect Pet for each category.

Winners will be announced on #winningwednesday 14th October – which also happens to be Hastings Day, a nod to our local area and our Hastings-celebrity judge!

And prizes?

* Categories: for each category, the winner chosen by Jo will receive a rosette, certificate and a pack of our greetings cards (each winner can choose from our 8 lovely pack options, kindly sponsored by Static Trader).

* Overall: from the 6 category winners, Jo will also pick an overall competition winner, for the prize of a 20cm x 30 cm canvas, printed by Max Spielmann at Hastings (Churchwood Drive Tesco Extra). The canvas can be of any photo of the winner’s choice – it doesn’t have to be the competition entry (unless you want it to be of course)!

Thanks Max Spielmann and Jo Brand for making this possible!

The competition is open now, so please get your entries into our charity photo competition soon! And don’t forget to look out on our social media for pup-dates! 

 

Sean Cycles 54 Miles to Support Our Charity

Sep 30, 2020

We’re very pleased to share that friend of the PLIRB, Sean O’Sullivan has successfully completed his solo 54-mile charity bike ride to support our charity.

As we previously shared, Sean of SOS Entertainment, originally planned to cycle on behalf of our charity in the 2020 London to Brighton bike ride. But after that event was cancelled, with a few sponsors already behind him, Sean organised his own date and route and got on his bike to fulfil his offer of charity support anyway!

Unfortunately for Sean, he couldn’t have picked a worse weather day when it comes to wind! With much of the south coast experiencing very strong winds, Sean found himself cycling into a strong headwind for almost all of his 54-mile route.

Sean, having final bike checks at Rye Bay Ebikes, just before setting off from Rye Harbour.

Thanks to Rye Bay Ebikes for joining in and for sponsoring Sean for this challenge.

Sean battled against that strong headwind right from the start, which made even the early stages of the journey exhausting. By the half way stage, when Sean reached Dungeness, the wind was taking its toll … but Sean remained good humoured as he stopped for a short check-in with safety support, Bob Cheeseman.

Video courtesy of Bob Cheeseman and Sean O’Sullivan

So by the time Sean had cycled on through Camber and Rye, the wind wasn’t Sean’s only problem. The exhaustive cycling against the wind took a real toll on Sean’s legs, causing a significant struggle as he had to work twice as hard as usual to get anywhere.

By that final stretch, along the main Sea Road that runs between Winchelsea Beach and our Pett Level boathouse, Sean wasn’t just pushing against the wind, but also the effects of the effort of cycling against it – real muscle burn to the legs.

“It was a lot tougher than I thought, and that’s purely due to the wind,” Sean said afterwards. “I regularly ride 30 miles or more and the 54 miles wouldn’t have been a problem if it wasn’t for that wind – I literally had it against me all the way round! It felt like it doubled the distance with the strain and effort it took.”

Charity support – it works both ways

 

Sean says that what made a real difference to him at this point, was knowing that his challenge (and pain) was for our charity. That, and the knowledge that some of our volunteers had opened up the boathouse and that we (and a cup of tea!) were in phone contact with his support throughout and were following his progress as we waited to greet him.

So somehow, Sean rallied for that last long stretch of relentless wind along the Sea Road, to arrive at our boathouse an amazing 5 1/2 hours and 54 miles after setting out. This moment was captured by crew member, Martin and sincerely appreciated by Sean …

“I’m so glad I did it because I was well supported. The way the PLIRB volunteers thanked me when I got back … I couldn’t get over it! There were people out by the road clapping and applauding as I came through, that was great.”

Of course, with social distancing in mind, although we can gather in the course of our volunteer work, we did limit numbers on the day, which meant that quite literally, we weren’t able to thank Sean enough for his huge endeavours on our behalf. So we’ve invited Sean back to the boathouse for a proper thank you visit, once restrictions are lifted.

And in the meantime, between online donations via Sean’s giving page, through our website, and cash donations on the day, Sean’s amazing charity support with his solo cycle ride has raised around £600. The PLIRB committee is delighted with this, as Chair Kev explains:

“All the volunteers here are very grateful to Sean for raising so much to help Pett Level Independent Rescue Boat at this difficult time. We’d also like to say a big thank you to everyone who donated online and in cash to support Sean’s amazing effort.”

Everyone at Pett Level Independent Rescue Boat would like to say a huge thank you to Sean for this absolutely superb endeavour to support our charity. We really do appreciate his help with the fundraising. We’re also in awe of the time and effort Sean gave up to cycle his gruelling 54 mile route to raise funds for us. Thanks so much to Sean and everyone who helped or donated for this fundraiser.

If you’ve enjoyed this post, you might like to look at Sean’s own blog post on this fundraiser, as it has more videos of his progress throughout the challenge!

Your donations are welcome, thank you

Whilst you’re here …

As an independent rescue service, we are run by volunteers and fundraise to buy all of our own equipment and to pay our considerable running costs. Since the pandemic began, these costs have risen to over £10,000 a year.

If you like the work we do and would like to support us, your donation would really be appreciated and would, ultimately, help us to help those in danger on our local coastline.

Thank you so much, from the volunteers at Pett Level Independent Rescue Boat.

Annual General Meeting – Latest Update

Sep 24, 2020

Our charity’s AGM, which had to be postponed in April, is rescheduled to Sunday 27th September at 10:00 am at our boathouse.
The aim has been to hold this in a socially distanced way outside, weather permitting. We are not expecting large numbers, so we still hope to go ahead with the AGM, as our ‘work’ team of volunteers will be present for our Sunday training and equipment maintenance session as usual.

 

Masks must be worn in accordance with guidelines and all attendees will be asked to provide contact information in line with track and trace requirements.

 

If the format of the AGM is changed to an online event, further information will be given, so please do keep an eye out on our social media.