Peter Drew, Chairman of the New Beach Club Harvest Home committee, presented cheques for £1,310 to the crews of both the Rye Harbour and Hastings RNLI lifeboats at the New Beach Club, Pett Level, last Friday October 27.
The 66th annual Harvest Home auction, which was held on Saturday September 30, raised a record amount of money for local lifeboat crews who are extremely grateful to everyone who gave their time, effort, donations and support to this event.
Tony Peters accepted the cheque on behalf of Rye Harbour, and Sloane Phillips on behalf of Hastings.
Both of these experienced crew members made acceptance speeches in front of a packed audience, which included several crew members and supporters from both stations, including Joe Brown, from Rye Harbour lifeboat station, who worked hard as one of the auctioneers on the night.
You can follow Rye Harbour Lifeboat on Twitter @RyeLifeboat.
On November 19 this year Rye Harbour remembers the 17 lifeboat crew of the Mary Stanford, who lost their lives in 1928, at the annual lifeboat service at 3pm in the harbour church.
RNLI volunteers provide a 24-hour search and rescue service around the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland coasts. The charity operates more than 230 lifeboat stations (including Dungeness, Rye Harbour and Hastings locally) in the UK and Ireland and has more than 140 lifeguard units on beaches around the UK (including Camber locally from this year).
The RNLI is independent of the coastguard and government and depends on voluntary donations and legacies to maintain its rescue service. Since it was founded in 1824 its lifeboat crews and lifeguards have saved more than 137,000 lives.
Photo : RNLI