On Sunday, December 15, Rye Harbour RNLI organised a community sing-along for the first time in its history. The carols chosen were all well-known and from the littlest in the room to the oldest, all joined in. Martin Bruce, the station’s Chairman, played his concertina to accompany the singing. His shanty group, the Round Rye Bay Singers, was in fine voice and encouraged everyone to join in. It was great to see so many families and, who knows, some of the children may well be future crew.
There was a wonderful atmosphere and one of the villagers was overheard to say, “that’s a good start to Christmas in the village.”
Afterwards Paul Bolton, LOM, (Lifeboat Operations Manager), invited everyone to have a cup of tea, homemade sausage rolls, cakes and mince pies. The refreshments were free of charge as a way for the station to say ‘thank you’ to all our loyal supporters who raise funds and give up their time to help throughout the year.
People were asking as they left, “Will you do this again next year? It was wonderful!” I am sure that we will.