News

Midsummer Night's Dream Castle tour

On 19. 20 & 21 July the Manx National Heritage presented in conjuction with TNT Britain and ADG Europe the William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream Castle tour on the IOM and SftD was invited to have a collection at the end of each performance. Of course we happily accepted this invitation, which resulted in a total of £393.29. The visiters in Peel might have been surpriced by a collecting donkey who definitely brought in some extra pennies!
A big thank you goes to Grantly Marshall from ADG Europe and to Ed Bunce from Laxey Glen Pavilion for allowing us to do the collection. Rest assured all the funds go towards the service provision to members.

Sailing for the Disabled Endeavour award

Last week we had a double celebration. Firstly we celebrated Alan Cope's 90th birthday. It was Alan's wish to go for a short sail with some members of the charity he has a special connection with.  Also invited were Steve and Kathy, two directors from LMS Partners who sponsor the charity by looking after our savings. Alan and Marion have been active for the charity for over 20 years and Alan still is as one of the directors of Pride of Mann Limited. 

When organising Alan's party the committee wanted to make it a bit more special. Alan has contributed to the charity in many ways, as a skipper, chairman, fundraiser, director and much more. Realising that we have many very dedicated members that deserve a very big 'Thank you' for all they have done, we decided to introduce the Sailing for the Disabled Endeavour Award. The first engraved decal shows Alan Cope 2019 and he will have the award in his possesion for a year. A smaller copy was handed over for Alan to keep. The award has been made by the Manx Workshop for the Disabled. Congratulations Alan, well deserved.

As Marion has played a significant role for the charity too, especially as a fundraiser, Marion received a beautiful flower basket.

All in all it was a lovely celebration, very much helped by the delicious canapes donated by Georgie and the beautiful cake Margaret brought along.

If you would like to see more photos, please go to the gallery.

Congratulations to the 100Club winners of July

First prize:        Nr 10 - Monica Clark  £30
Second prize:   Nr 53 - David Bridson   £12.50
Third prize:       Nr 47 - Ray McMullen   £7.50

We are still hoping for more new members to help boost SFTD funds AND to increase the prize money. Please consider joining or giving a friend a membership of the 100 club as a birthday present. You don’t have to be a member of SFTD to join the 100 Club ! 

Disability Awareness Training, update July 2019

Two training sessions of disability awareness training have now been completed by 16 crew members, and attenders were asked for feedback as this training is quite different from that previously offered by SFTD.

Carole Q

Whitehaven Marina

An advert in our local Manx paper prompted us to consider Whitehaven as the first destination of our passage plan. So, we set sail from Douglas IOM in frisky conditions for the welcoming sight of the Sea Lock, almost on free flow. Directed to an ideal berth bearing in mind we had wheelchair users on board, we settled down for an evening meal.

Deteriorating weather forecasted for the next few days, confirmed our choice of Whitehaven, where at least there were coffee shops and the town in close range. What started as a 'stopover' rapidly became a 'base' as the first better weather forecast was in four days' time!

With the help of the Marina team we were able to access four wheeled transport and toured the surrounding lakes for two halve days, making a benefit out of what was more than a strong breeze. Everyone really enjoyed our stay (and want to return!) made possible by the Marina team who went way beyond 'normal service' to a level we really appreciated.

Many thanks to Whitehaven Marina for enabling us to snatch success from the jaws of poor weather!