I recently took over as Fundraising Chair for RNLI Salcombe & Kingsbridge Fundraising Crew. I thought it would be good to introduce myself to everyone although many of you will have met me at RNLI events and I call into the shop whenever I’m passing. To run our fundraising events around South Hams and open your RNLI shop on a regular basis, we need more volunteers.
I live in West Charleton with my wife Penny, who is also a volunteer fundraiser for the RNLI as well as giving her time to another local charity, KASC. We both work part time, Penny, in the Rowbury gallery in Salcombe on Tuesdays (call in and say hello if you’re passing) and I run a small website and marketing business from home. Before setting up my own business, I spent 25 years in sales and marketing for global telecommunications companies.
I’ve always been involved with voluntary work from Scouts as a youngster, a member of the Mountain Rescue Team in The Peak District as a young man and then community projects when I was older.
Going forward, I would like to re-introduce some of the fun volunteer get togethers so that we can meet up more often, start to have more street based fundraising events and of course continue with some of the bigger fund-raising events that have been so successful in the past. Next year is our 200th anniversary so the RNLI 200 celebrations will be a big year for us.
The key to our success will be down to recruiting more people who are as dedicated too, and passionate about the RNLI as we are, so I would ask you all to join in. We have no shortage of great ideas for fundraising, just not enough active volunteers to deliver them.
You can contact me anytime on email: Philip_Ward@RNLI.org.uk