Community news from around Thanet

QEQM celebration

QEQM Hospital League of Friends

QEQM Hospital celebrated its 90th birthday on Friday ,July 3 –  nine decades of service to the Thanet community and beyond. Having supported the Hospital for the last 73 years, we were delighted to be invited to attend the socially distanced celebrations. Cakes were given to patients and medical teams, which  we were happy to contribute towards- a much-deserved little treat.

Grateful thanks to all those who supported the special fundraising event run by the Walmer Castle Greek Taverna in Westgate on Sunday 28th June to raise funds for our charity. Huge appreciation to the Taverna’s management and staff who worked extremely hard and absorbed all the costs – so 100% of the donations received for the meze takeaway meals provided came to the League of Friends and in turn will benefit the patients and staff at the hospital. The excellent sum of £2,900 was raised.

Royal Temple Yacht Club – by Karen Cox

With the current restrictions on competitive sailing restricting yachts to only  tow members of the same household and the weekend weather not being conducive to two handed sailing, members of the Royal Temple Yacht Club have had to turn to other means to get their sailing fix.

Enter RC Lasers – or remote controlled Lasers. A quarter the size of a normal Laser dingy they are a great way for competitive sailors to hone their skills from the socially distanced safety of the pontoon.

The full size Laser dingy was designed by Bruce Kirby and is by far the most popular dingy sailed in 40 countries around the world. In 1995 Jon Elmaleh, a past World Champion of the Radio Controlled Marblehead class approached Bruce with the idea of making a 1/4 scale version of the Laser for radio controlled racing. The strict one design means that all of the Lasers are identical so you have to rely purely on skill to win a race.

Photo: Chris Cox

Ten members of the Royal Temple Yacht Club met at the inner harbour in Ramsgate this morning, two of whom had never raced a remote controlled Laser before. They were also joined by a man who was very skilled, club member Adrian Tomlinson who has previously come second in the National Championships and third in the Worlds. Adrian provided the buoys and the starting clock and the competition started with new Rear Comm. Sail Nick Rawbone keeping an eye on the proceedings. With lockdown meaning that the racing season hasn’t yet got underway, it’s been left to Nick to come up with new ways to entertain the sailors.

The weather tried its hardest to knock the Lasers down with very blustery conditions, the wind gusting up to 20 knots and constantly shifting making conditions difficult. The group had to give their full attention to their yachts but thankfully there wasn’t a repeat of a previous incident when one competitor was concentrating so hard that he stepped off the end of the pontoon into the water!
Sixteen races later and Adrian proved once again to be a winner, but it was tightly contested with Paul Woodward and Mike Brand, championship winner and Gold Cup winner in last years Euromarine Insurance Ramsgate Week full size yacht regatta pushing hard for second and third place.

Thanet Sunrise Rotary Club annual Big Knit

The Thanet Sunrise Rotary Club’s generous £1,000 donation comes at a time when Pilgrims Hospices really needs the support of the community of east Kent.  The money has been raised through the annual community ‘Rotary Big Knit’

Caroline Winzer from Thanet Sunrise Rotary Club said:Each year Thanet Sunrise Rotary Club organise a very special community event; the ‘Rotary Big Knit’ which takes place in April raising thousands of pounds in just one afternoon and attended by over 150 knitters.

“Four charities are nominated each year to benefit from this one event and Pilgrims Hospice, Thanet had been one of those charities this year.

“The club were devastated to cancel the event due to the COVID-19 crisis, but a small handful of knitters still donated or knitted in isolation and collected almost £1000.

“This generosity together with other funds already raised during the previous months enabled the club to still donate £1000.  Thanet Sunrise Rotary Club meet weekly for breakfast and are pictured here at their Christmas breakfast meeting” (photo taken prior to the Covid 19 outbreak in the UK).

Karen Kenward, Community Fundraising Manager for Pilgrims Hospice Thanet said: “Our charity is facing challenging times during the COVID-19 outbreak; the Rotary Club’s very generous donation of £1,000 couldn’t have come at a better time. The past few months have been unexpectedly difficult for Pilgrims Hospices, despite this our vital work has not stopped and we still continue to provide compassionate care and support at our hospices and in the community to ensure our patients, their families and our staff are all remaining safe.”

Pilgrims has launched the Still Here; Still Caring Appeal, where the local community and businesses are making donations to support the hospices whilst the normal fundraising activities are postponed.  www.pilgrimshospices.org/still-caring

In order to keep the core of event supporters interested during these difficult times, the fundraising team has launched a new virtual campaign called #StayHomeHospiceHero.  This is helping our team remain engaged with our wonderful local community and offers opportunities to continue to help us from home, such as a virtual hike around the Isle of Wight in July and a Virtual Pet Show.

Karen continued: “Our care team has developed and implemented lots of change to adapt and respond to our patients needs during lockdown, they continue to deliver end-of-life services both within our inpatient units and in the community by telephone and online facilities.”

If you would like to take on a challenge in support of our charity, please contact Karen Kenward Tel: 01843 233934, email: [email protected] or look at Pilgrims new virtual site for ideas: www.pilgrimshospices.org/event/stayhomehospicehero/

We need you more than ever, thank you.

Each year Pilgrims Hospices give care and comfort to over 2,500 people in east Kent coming to terms with an illness that sadly cannot be cured.  The charity supports patient’s to live life as well as possible until the very end, free from pain and distress.

Isle of Thanet Photographic Society

Club members have been active during “lockdown”, rising to the monthly challenges set by our Chairman Laura Drury.  Some great images have been shared on Flickr and the final subject is “Leading Lines”.  We are expecting some inspired photos to share with you next month.

We now move on to our regular summer project where members are encouraged to get creative and respond to set subjects, ready to share them at the start of the new season in September.  This year we will be looking for the best from “LOCKDOWN” – Leaves, Order, Cooking, Keys, Doorway, Outdoors, Washing, Naughty.

The club’s AGM and weekly meetings from September will be held via Zoom (or other electronic platform)  and our full programme will be published in August.  From January 2021 we intend to return to meetings as usual, circumstances permitting.

To find out more about the club and view our images, please visit us online at www.isleofthanetphotographicsociety.co.uk and on Facebook.

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