Volvo Trucks has helped to float the latest fundraising venture by the RNLI’s Warwick Ladies’ Lifeboat Guild – a book of family-friendly recipes called “Granny To the Rescue!” It paid the £4,000 printing costs so that the entire proceeds from the initial run of 1,000 books will go to helping vital, lifesaving work around Britain’s shores.
Elizabeth Collins, the Guild’s honorary secretary, said: “From the initial run of 1,000 books we will receive £7,500 which will enable the RNLI to completely kit out seven lifeboat crew members with gloves, boots, helmet, jacket, trousers and all weather lifejacket. To look at it another way, the £7.50 for each book will buy a lifeguard one or two pieces of important personal equipment like whistles, uniform shirts or swimwear. Obviously we are hoping that we will sell all 1,000 books which would necessitate a re-run.”
RNLI’s local education officer Judith Duncan, pointed out: “By the time you have prepared and cooked a recipe from this book, one of our lifeboats will have gone out to sea to help someone and perhaps even saved a life.”
Having learnt of the Transaid Cycle Zambia project through the pages of Logistics Manager last year, Donna Welby saw the challenge as an ideal opportunity to put something back into a continent that has filled her with delight over many years. Her family moved to South Africa during her formative years in the early 1970s and, while she has now been back in the UK for some 30 years, in those early days the charm and magic of the whole continent became deeply ingrained within her heart and soul. She now takes every opportunity to return on vacation, but she saw the Cycle Zambia project as a real chance to make a difference.
Transaid seeks to improve the quality of life by providing better access to basic services such as health, education and economic opportunities by improving transport and promoting driver and road safety throughout Africa.
She says: “There is little doubt that there are many worthy causes for fund raising in Africa, but one fact really hit me when deciding to support Transaid. More children died in Africa in 1998, according to the World Health Organisation, from road crashes than from the HIV/AIDS virus. The need for education then, among the African population is huge, and this is Transaid’s objective.” Should you wish to donate, visit the web site: www.justgiving.com/donnawelby
There are now just three places left on the challenge. During the ten-day journey riders travel 450kms across Zambia ending at the Victoria Falls. For more information, contact Erin on 020 7387 8136 or erin@transaid.org
Foreign secretary David Miliband took the opportunity to visit the Port of Tyne to meet Andrew Moffat, the port’s new chief executive, just before Christmas. Miliband, who is MP for South Shields, and last visited the port in June 2007, was in the region to attend the Captains of Industry workshop.
Moffat, who took over the leadership of the port in November, said: “There are challenging times ahead and how we change to meet the challenges will dictate our future success.”
Redditch-based Oakland International is celebrating a decade in business and has held a special presentation for long serving employees to mark the occasion. Six staff from the multi-temperature supply chain specialist were presented with a crystal Long Service plaque to mark their achievements. Managing director Dean Attwell, who presented the awards, said: “Oakland began trading in 1998, and over ten years we have all worked hard and now enjoy consistent growth year-on-year with employee numbers having swollen from our original ten to 105, with further recruitment underway.”
When we left The BBC Box last month, it had just entered the US through the port of Los Angeles. It went by train to a distribution centre in Tremont, Pennsylvania just before Christmas from where the goods, plastic spray bottles and digital bathroom scales, were distributed by road. Technical problems with the Box’s GPS unit have meant that it has only been possible to provide sporadic updates to the location. It is now set to leave New York for Santos in Brazil with a cargo of household goods – a journey of some three weeks. Follow its progress at www.bbc.co.uk/thebox
