Raising funds for the Stromness Lifeboat

Graemsay folk enjoying tea and homebakes
(Photo by Irene Mathieson)

There are many times when I'm proud to be part of the Graemsay community and Weds night was one of those. Irene of Breckan and I organised a Games Night to raise funds for the Stromness Lifeboat and crew. The community raised a grand total of £300.  Not bad for a wee island of only has 27 folk (including 6 children).

The lifeboat has been out to Graemsay several times in recent months to help with medical evacuations. Sometimes the Scottish Air Ambulance helicopter attends, and there is the Coastguard helicopter as backup. But these are many miles away and cover much of the Highlands and Islands and if emergency transport is needed to the local hospital in Kirkwall it is the Stromness Lifeboat that are called out.  In the UK all the lifeboats are crewed by volunteers, who selflessly give their time (and sometimes their lives) to help others. Strictly speaking they are supposed to rescue folk at sea, but with no other means of transport outside of the ferry timetable, they are a vital link for those of us on Graemsay.

Anyway, I'd chatted with Irene about the idea of a Games Night fundraiser and we worked together to put the event on. We also wanted to do a night for the island folk. Most events involve lots of folk, but in the Summer months everyone is busy with farm work so we wanted to just do this between us. As well as games Irene had suggested the tombola stall (you buy tickets and if one matches a prize you win the prize). I'd never run one of these before but it was a stroke of genius as folk were queueing up to get to the table once we started!

The white teddy was almost fought over, lots of folk young and old seemed to want possession of THAT particular prize.  The wee boys were keen to win the cars and RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institute) tractors.  There was much swapping of prizes among folk too, with Becky not really needing anti-wrinkle cream just yet, though she HAS just turned 11 so maybe she should be thinking about that? Hee hee!

We'd started the evening with a quiz which was hotly contested between three teams. I was on the team with the least points, but we had fun anyway.  Tea and homebakes were provided tto, of course! More games followed, and continued visits to the tombola stall, and also "Guess the Weight of the Cake" - pah didn't win that either!

Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and with a total of £300 as you can see lots of money was spent! I really enjoyed the evening. I loved "eavesdropping" on the kids doing deals over "swaps" of bounty, or with grandparents who had won a coveted prize.

So, hopefully in a small way we have shown our appreciation of the Stromness Lifeboat and crew who come out without complaint to help us whenever we need them.