Over 20 cardboard boats, lots of competitive spirit and plenty of fun family activities – Saturday 16th August had all the ingredients for a fantastic day of fundraising and boy did it deliver!
The event kicked off with the boats congregating in Casemates for judging and just a little bit of showing off by the teams, including from our own Hawaiian themed Leaky Tiki. Following the parade down to Ocean Village we were delighted to be awarded ‘Best Boat Design’, all thanks to the amazing Gibraltar Command Diving Element (GIB CDE) – Tom, Nosey, and Ross – who built us a seriously awesome boat!
Sadly we just missed out on qualifying in our heat, but the boat survived beautifully, even if our bikini-clad rowers felt the burn – special shout out to our Operations manager Nic and Branding and Marketing officer Samir for signing up to represent us.
We could never have got the boat, or our spirits, off the ground and into the water without the amazing support (in both muscles and enthusiasm) of our volunteer supporters – Shelbie, Frank, James, Kyrone, Ivan & Aleks – who got us to the race in one piece and cheered us on to the very last.
At the same time, our info and merchandise stall was raising vital funds and providing support and information on the charity to the huge group of people enjoying the atmosphere and activities at Ocean Village. Massive thanks to Beth, Jason, Aanya, Lizzie, Alice, and corporate volunteers Rachel, Mark, Mihaela, Robin and Ja and team for their endless energy, engagement and commitment to making this event the best it could possibly be.
We owe huge thanks to three organisation, without whom this event would never get off the ground – the lovely gents at the RAOB who are at the heart of this long-standing community event, the team at Ocean Village who organised such a wonderful family day out and the incredibly generous sponsors Pretty Sailing, whose support allowed this event to flourish this year. The amount raised for Cancer Relief was a whopping £10,000, which goes directly to supporting the many free services we offer, from specialised nursing care to carer support and everything in between. We could not continue to provide this care free of charge to anyone affected by cancer if it weren’t for amazing events such as this. Thank you to everyone who took part in any way, we appreciate it more than you could know.
