Hoylake and West Kirby RNLI Meet & Greet Day gives £4,000 boost to lifesavers
An annual fundraising event hosted by Hoylake and West Kirby RNLI has raised over £4,000 thanks to the generosity of the Wirral lifeboat stations’ local community and supporters.
The RNLI Meet and Greet Day on Saturday 19 August offered the public a rare chance to step aboard the lifesaving charity’s lifeboats and launch vehicles, including Hoylake’s Shannon class lifeboat and hovercraft and West Kirby’s D class IB1 lifeboat.
The volunteer RNLI crews spoke to hundreds of visitors at Hoylake Lifeboat Station about their lifesaving work around the Merseyside coast.
The Wirral Coastguard Rescue Team and Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service also joined the event, displaying their rescue vehicles and equipment and showing how RNLI lifeboat crews and the other emergency services work together to save lives.
The incredible total of £4,483.33 was raised from generous donations from the public, as well as through sales of RNLI souvenirs, refreshments and tombola tickets. Visitors also made donations to soak a crew member in the stocks and to try their hand at helming a remote control RNLI lifeboat.
Hoylake RNLI Coxswain Howie Owen said: ‘We can’t thank everyone enough for coming along to our Meet and Greet Day and supporting Hoylake and West Kirby lifeboat stations. This is the second year we’ve held this fundraising event and there was a brilliant community atmosphere.’
‘The total raised is amazing and crucial for funding our 24-hour search and rescue service. Thank you to everyone who came along to support us and to all the volunteers who ran stalls, collected donations and made the event such a success!’
In 2022, RNLI lifeboats in the UK and Ireland launched 9,312 times, helping 16,476 people and saving 389 lives. But as a charity, the RNLI is reliant on voluntary donations to power its lifesaving work, which last year cost a total of £188 million.
Notes to editors
Hoylake Lifeboat Station was founded in 1803 and is one of the oldest lifeboat stations in the UK. It operates the Shannon class all-weather lifeboat Edmund Hawthorn Micklewood and Inshore Rescue Hovercraft Hurley Spirit.
West Kirby Lifeboat station was founded in 1966 and operates the inshore IB1 lifeboat Seahorse. It is the only lifeboat station in the RNLI to operate the Hagglund BV206 all-terrain launch vehicle.
RNLI media contacts
For more information, please contact:
Dan Whiteley, Hoylake RNLI Lifeboat Press Officer on 07799 851 316 or email [email protected]
Eleri Roberts, RNLI Regional Media Officer on 07771 941 390 or email [email protected]
RNLI Public Relations on 01202 336789
Key facts about the RNLI
The RNLI charity saves lives at sea. Its volunteers provide a 24-hour search and rescue service around the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland coasts. The RNLI operates 238 lifeboat stations in the UK and Ireland and more than 240 lifeguard units on beaches around the UK and Channel Islands. The RNLI is independent of Coastguard and government and depends on voluntary donations and legacies to maintain its rescue service. Since the RNLI was founded in 1824, its lifeboat crews and lifeguards have saved over 142,700 lives.
Learn more about the RNLI
For more information please visit the RNLI website or Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. News releases, videos and photos are available on the News Centre.
Contacting the RNLI - public enquiries
Members of the public may contact the RNLI on 0300 300 9990 (UK) or 1800 991802 (Ireland) or by email.