Local News

Christmas has come early for the volunteers of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution in Redcar when a supermarket chain played Santa and delivered a sack full of fundraising gifts to the lifeboat station.

And now the crew have a brand-new iPad Air and a Nikon digital SLR camera complete with accessories, up for grabs, just in time for Christmas.

Following the theft of Christmas lights from a house in Wincanton Road, Redcar, where Geoff and Tina Patchett had set up a spectacular intended to raise funds for the RNLI in Redcar, David Fryer from the Tesco customer service centre stepped in and donated new lights to replace the stolen items.

And at the same time he told the crew at the lifeboat station he had ‘a little surprise’ for them as well, to be used to raise funds for the station.

Dave Cocks from Redcar RNLI explains: ‘When David Fryer from Tesco got in touch with us about the theft of the lights, he explained how they were going to help out by sending some replacement lights to Geoff and Tina so that they could continue with the display and keep on fundraising for us.

"Then he said he’d like to send something to the station that we could raffle or auction to raise even more money for our work. He was a bit coy about what he was sending and told us it would be a surprise.

"To be perfectly honest we were expecting perhaps some tins of biscuits or selection boxes, something like that. So when we opened the parcel and saw a brand-new iPad and digital camera, we were gobsmacked!"

In the parcel was a 64Gb Apple iPad Air tablet and a Nikon D3100 digital SLR camera with an 18-55mm zoom lens. There was also a tripod and carrying case for the camera, and even a memory card for it. To raise as much money as possible from the donated items, the crew are holding an online auction through their Facebook page.

Dave Cocks explains: ‘We are running an auction through our Facebook page Facebook.com/RedcarRNLI. The camera and accessories are one lot, and the iPad is the second lot. Bidding is done by sending a message through the Facebook page. That way we’ll be able to keep the bids secret.

"When we close the auction at 9am on Sunday 21 December, we’ll let the winning bidders know as soon as we can so they can pick up their prize in time for Christmas.

"Anyone who can’t get on to Facebook can still take part by putting a sealed bid through the letterbox at the lifeboat station."

Because of the value of the items a reserve of £300 has been set for the iPad, and £225 for the camera equipment.