Calling all fundraisers, volunteers, cake bakers and organisers – Weymouth lifeboat needs you

The Weymouth RNLI fundraising team is looking to recruit new volunteers to help them raise money for the station, this can be through organising events, collecting or helping out at various events like Lifeboat Week.

The team will be holding a recruitment event on March 31 from 7pm at Weymouth lifeboat station, Nothe Parade.

There are lots of volunteer roles to be filled so whether you can spare a few hours to a fundraiser, committee member or cake baker, everyone is welcome to go along and find out more.

Volunteer press officer Ken Francis said: “Fundraisers could be of any age and give as little as a couple of hours a year to as much time as they can spare on a weekly basis.

“Come along to our recruitment evening and meet the crew and other fundraisers, find out what we do on a daily and weekly basis and find out what you could do to help keep our lifeboats going to sea and saving lives.”

Malcolm Wright is a former coastguard and now volunteers as lifeboat operations manager. He said the recruitment evening would give people the chance to come along and find out more about how they could get involved.

He said: “I wanted to continue my work for the community. It’s an opportunity to work with very dedicated, motivated people and continue my commitment to sea safety.”

Chairman of Weymouth branch, David James, said that the charity got very little funding from the government and so were reliant on donations and that was why the fundraising volunteers were so important.

He said: “If people can give an hour a year, month or week, so can use them.”

A station costs £340,000 a year to run and a new boat costs around £2.7 million Mr James said.

Terry Sherman is part of the Sea Safety Team in Weymouth. Private boat owners can book an appointment with the team and they will go and do safety checks, including checking life jackets, personal locator beacons and that the boats have a VHF radio.

He said: “It’s very rewarding.”

THE Weymouth team will be hosting an antiques evening with expert Paul Atterbury.

Mr Atterbury, from the BBC top show The Antiques Roadshow, will be hosting the fundraising evening on Thursday April 16 at Weymouth pavilion from 7pm.

People will get the chance to enter a raffle for a chance to win the opportunity for Mr Atterbuiry to value their antiques.

Tickets can be purchased from the Pavilion box office.