12:33pm Thursday 25th February 2010
MEMBERS were advised tickets for both the spring group meeting in April and for the annual county meeting in March at the Brentwood Centre were now available.
A coach has been booked for the latter, and we were reminded to take the toiletry items for George Mills' Romanian charity to the event.
Members have volunteered to collect for Marie Curie Charity on March 6 in Aveley village, and a coffee morning to support the Meningitis Trust was also suggested.
A visit to the new recycling depot at Tilbury will be arranged for April, and a trip to Highgrove is likely in the summer.
Speaker Tricia Gurnett's topic was the history of the RNLI. Her interest started because her grandfather was Master of a Thames barge, The Sepoy, and was rescued in the early days of the RNLI.
The lifeboats have developed from steam to motor to turbo-jet, and crews work in conjunction with helicopters and hovercrafts.
The latest model costs £207million and the RNLI has a variety of designs depending on their location.
Every day, 22 lifeboats are launched at a cost of £378,000. Since the RNLI has no Government funding, local interest is encouraged to support it.
Rita Rudd gave the vote of thanks for this interesting talk.
The raffle winner was Pat Wade, and the instant raffle went to Brenda Foster.
The competition winner of “most items in a matchbox” was Marylin Tilbrook and the flower of the month belonged to Sandra Blackburn.
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