Feature

(Kevin Murphy, ILB helm, in charge of the stretcher team. Photo by John Fenton)

Storm force event at Dart. July 14 2012

James Millidge. RNLI Youth Education Manager.
This July Dart Lifeboat Station took it upon themselves to organise their first ever Stormforce event at Dart Lifeboat Station in Dartmouth, Devon. Stormforce is the RNLI’s children’s membership club for 4-11 year olds and as well as an exciting joining pack and quarterly magazines members get the privilege to be invited to Lifeboat Stations to meet the crew and see the Lifeboats and Lifeguards first hand. Dr John Fenton, the Lifeboat Education volunteer at Dart, led the organisation of the event and had this to say about what was involved;
“Arranging a Storm Force event is not as daunting as it might first appear. The Education team at RNLI HQ at Poole sent out invitations to all Storm Force members in South Devon and collated the replies. They also supplied an overall risk assessment package.
As usual at the Dart station the whole team became involved. The Fundraisers registered the 40 plus Storm Force members as they arrived with their families, whilst Tony Kirkland missed no opportunity to show them his RNLI souvenirs. They were greeted by a perspiring John Yunnie, our Sea safety officer, disguised as Stormy Sam, the RNLI’s children’s mascot. We had shore based scenarios based on the Dart inshore lifeboat led by helmsmen Kevin Murphy and Buster Hart. Chris Rampling is a local Lifeguard from the South Hams as well as being on the lifeboat crew. He and fellow lifeguard Matt Turner showed the children the first aid work that they carry out on the beaches.   Two of the lifeboat crew, Chris Tracey and Yorkie Lomas, are also members of the RNLI Flood Rescue team based at Saltash and they brought their vehicle and boat. The children loved learning how to use the throwing lines. The lifeboat crew work closely with the local Coastguard cliff rescue team and the coastguards set up their stretchers and harnesses on the high wall behind the lifeboat station. There were scenarios in the water involving all the teams as a climax to the event. Feedback from the children showed that they would have liked the water rescues to have lasted longer and highlighted the need to keep them involved at every stage. There are photos in the Photo gallery of this web site and if all goes well there will be a video of the day on the dartlifeboat YouTube page.”
It was a thoroughly rewarding and enjoyable experience for all involved!

Latest News

Date: Sat 19 Jan 2013

Sink Our Ship, preferably with donations!

Photographer: John Fenton LPO

Crewmen from the Dart lifeboat manned a liferaft in the Dartmouth Boatfloat last Saturday. It was in aid of the annual RNLI SOS fundraising event. This year locally raised money will go towards the on-going costs of running the Dart station. It will help towards meeting the costs of items such as fuel, training and re-supplying items used on rescues, such as First Aid materials.An anonymous donor bid £100 to inflate the liferaft and then passed the honour to the children of the lifeboat crew. The liferaft was donated for the day by Ocean Safety of Plymouth.
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