Thursday, 16 May at 11:00
Today the RNLI’s ‘Connecting our Communities’ relay style event came to Aldeburgh.
Volunteers from the crew, shop and fundraising guild gathered to watch the signing of the scroll, bearing the RNLI pledge. It was signed by Yvette, representing our shop volunteers and guild, and James, representing our operational crew.
Chris, who is travelling over the course of seven months with the five-metre-long scroll, will pass through 240 RNLI locations around the UK and Ireland before finishing the journey in October at Douglas on the Isle of Man, which was home to the RNLI’s founder, Sir William Hillary. By this time, the scroll will carry around 700 signatures.
The scroll has been made bespoke by RNLI craftspeople using materials of significance to the charity. The wooden handle has been made by a carpenter from the RNLI’s All-Weather Lifeboat Centre in Poole (where the charity builds and maintains its all-weather lifeboats), using wood from an old flagpole from Ramsey lifeboat station on the Isle of Man. Apprentices from the RNLI’s Inshore Lifeboat Centre on the Isle of Wight have made the protective fibreglass casing and set the scroll spindles and accessories into the case.
