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Friends of RTBP Spring Newsletter
May 2019
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Dear Friends of the River Thames Boat Project,
Welcome to the Spring issue of the Newsletter. Although only the end of May there's been plenty of action with both boats and, of course, the event to celebrate 30 years of the boat project, which I hope you got along to.
I was lucky enough to take my first trip on Thames Discoverer last weekend and, like all our clients, I really enjoyed the trip and learnt a bit from the crew - such as how to tie a variety of useful knots and why one of the gates of Hampton Court's Privy Garden is painted black (as directed by Queen Victoria to honour Albert after his death). We cruised as far as Weybridge and on our return moored at Sunbury to visit the Rose Garden and see the Sunbury Millennium Embroidery - definitely worth the stop.
Your comments and stories are as welcome as ever.
Kate Oatham, Editor
kate@rtbpfriends.org
From the Wheelhouse
It has been a busy time getting ready for the main season which is now well underway. We’ve made some further improvements to Thames Discoverer in the galley area to make storage and work surface space more crew and client friendly. We’ve also replaced the folding door stern access - thank you to Richard Oatham and Dave Murray for all their work on this.
Volunteer training over the last few months included Disability Awareness training and important time at the helm for our growing group of volunteer skippers. Thank you everyone for taking the time to complete this important training. We have recruited some new volunteers who are learning how things work and, of course, we are always keen to welcome new people, especially for teaching as this area is really growing. Do please spread the word.
We have had some early bursts of sunshine, followed by cold winds and rain but as always, we carry on with our days on the river regardless!
In mid April, Thames Discoverer took her first tideway trip of the  season. The sun shone and we enjoyed our trip taking in the famous London sites including waving to the team at Hermitage Community Moorings. We made it up to the  Thames Barrier and back with a happy client group from Abbeyfield.
The preparations for our 30 years celebrations on 17th May meant giving the boats an extra clean and spruce before we took them down to Tamesis Club to join the festivities. Nigel Williams and I had fun and games trying to manoeuvre the boats to be side by side and provide some great shots for our ever supportive photographer John Frye.
We have our first residential cruise of the season during half term for Oxygen, a youth work project group from Kingston, so we are getting ready for that.
The diary is busy for cruises and education days for the next few months but do keep spreading the word.
Peter Oldham, Skipper
Fundraising News
Since the last newsletter, we braved a cold and windy day to have the charity stall at Ham Parade Market on 2nd March  and manned another water station for the Kingston Spring Race Day on 31st March generating much needed funds and building awareness about what we do with the local community.  March also saw two education workshops onboard Thames Venturer which Zaria organised and were open to volunteers and the local community. We had a day of making waxed food wrappers and the other was run by FreshWater Watch so both were focused on environmental education.
We have another water station lined up for the Harry Hawkes Summer Race Day running event on Sunday 23rd June which starts and finishes in Thames Ditton coming up to Kingston and along the Barge Walk. If you would like to run and raise funds through sponsorship for RTBP do please let me know ASAP.
Please save the date for the next big fundraiser to support the 30 years’ celebrations – Sunday 29th September. We will be doing a Thames Bridge Walking Challenge sponsored walk with a fundraising target of £5,000. Walkers, helpers and fundraisers welcome. More information to follow.
Kate Dodds, Marketing and Fundraising Manager
Coverage in Community Magazines
As part of our plan to build awareness about RTBP we have used the 30  years celebrations as a platform to tell our story to the local community. By partnering with local community magazines such as TW magazines which cover Teddington and Twickenham, Sunbury Matters and Walton Matters, Kingston Time & Leisure and The Richmond Magazine we have had a number of articles about the charity and the work that we do, with pictures of the boats, of course. This has generated a lot of positive responses and a number of enquiries from potential clients, volunteers and supporters.
Kate Dodds, Marketing and Fundraising Manager
Education & Learning Feedback
In Zaria's absence I thought it would be good to share a very small sample of the feedback received by the Education programme:
October: Latchmere School
One parent had been to School On the River (SOR) two years ago with her older son and she was very impressed by the way the "offer" had moved on and remained topical. She thought that the introduction of "drastic plastic" was an excellent addition to the programme.
The other parent, who had been on a few school trips, thought that SOR was the best by miles and was not replicated anywhere else.
All of them said that all the teaching was of a very high standard and that the volunteers were a credit to the Charity.
November: Earlsfield Primary School
We had a brilliant day at the Riverboat Project. Each activity helped the children to gain knowledge or learn new skills. The varied nature of the activities throughout the day kept them engaged.
We had an excellent leader who introduced us to the day and led the plastic activity - I can’t remember his name but he really made the day exciting and informative! As did the other staff who were leading the activities. Thank you!
January: Stewart Headlam Primary School (Hermitage)
Thank you so much for having us. the children loved it and learnt an awful lot from it. We would definitely come again! Children continue to learn and research water pollution and create their own ideas for how they could clean water or prevent water pollution.
March: HEUK Events (Home Education group)
Parents reported the whole package was great. We're coming back! That's how much the children loved it.
And a thank you to Gemma who's been holding the fort in Zaria's absence.
Kate Oatham, Editor
30 Years Celebration
For anyone lucky to be in Teddington  at the Tamesis Club at lunchtime on Friday 17 May, how moving it was to see our Thames Venturer and Thames Discoverer sailing up from Kingston, first in convoy and then side by side, before they manoeuvred into position by the Club’s lawns right by the horse chestnut in perfect bloom. Preparations over the weeks came together, with the arrival of the catering team, the  polishing of the glasses, the chilling of the bubbles, the arrangement of the big round tables in the clubroom, the setting up of the raffle, as well as the mopping and window-polishing of Discoverer, to bring her up to scratch for viewing by guests who hadn’t yet had a chance to step on board.
This was the opportunity to thank all the volunteers, supporters, Friends and everyone  who has helped to make the Project the success it is today. We were delighted that representatives from our key clients who book year after year, including Lest We Forget, accepted our invitation, plus care homes, schools and other groups – 120 guests in all. We had afternoon tea and plenty of time for people to reconnect and see the boats. We were particularly pleased that our Patron, Baroness Campbell, was able to come and cut the  delicious celebration cake and that Sir Peter Harrop, founder member and now Honorary President, made a speech with Keith Knox our Chair of Trustees. And we raised over £1000 in funds! Thank you to all the raffle prize gatherers and donors and ticket purchasers! The Raffle, Silent Auction and sales of our 30 years recycled cotton bags all contributed to the total.
It was a special afternoon by the river.
Sarah Herrick, Office Volunteer
Office Manager, Pippa Butterfield
The Spring newsletter’s profile focuses on Pippa Butterfield, the Boat Project’s Office Manager, universally appreciated for her meticulousness, her empathy and her great laugh.
 She is also Queen of Recycling: nothing is wasted, not a sheet of A4 gets recycled before being used on the other side. And in keeping with these credentials (echoed by her colleagues), she has always cycled to work, come rain or shine, her blonde hair flying.
Pippa grew up nearby and apart from her student days away for her degree (German and Linguistics) and a post-grad course in Tourism Management (with Accountancy an unusual module in each) she has always lived locally. After spells with various merchandising and direct marketing companies, as well as a charity, she found herself in need of a job. She heard about the role of Office Manager via her mum and an RTBP volunteer,  Jane Jewell, and landed the Perfect Job. ‘It was local and part-time, so that I could be at home for my family after school, and I was attracted by the fact that it was such a caring organisation with sustainability and a strong environmental focus at its heart.’
Pippa handles all the bookings, whether for cruises or education days, as well as the general book-keeping, management reports and the year-end accounts. In the five-and-a-half years that she has been with the Project, the sums of money coming through the accounts have increased enormously, not least the amounts raised through fund-raising (one of Pippa’s early achievements with the Charity was organising a sponsored walk, which raised over £5,000) and some substantial donations made in connection with the new boat.
She is very pleased to have introduced others to the Charity, and feels lucky to have such fulfilling work, where she is always learning. ‘I went on one of the teacher training days, and saw how seriously we were taking it and what an amazing thing we are doing. It made me incredibly proud to be working for the Charity. Being on the river gives you such a different perspective on life – it’s so calming, and so brilliant that people are taken out of themselves when they come on one of our boats. I realised how much I love this Project – it’s the best place I’ve ever worked.’
Apart from her family – David, Beth and Laurie - Pippa’s big loves outside work are baking, sewing, swimming, and her other ‘family’, Woodcraft, a national environmental youth group, for whom for 25 years she and David have run an Elfin group for 6-9 year olds.
Sarah Herrick, Office Volunteer
Visit to the Thames River Police Museum
 On 3 April 12 of us gathered in Wapping outside an ordinary looking building, although the blue plaque did give an idea of what was inside! We spent the next 90 minutes being regaled by museum curator Robert Jeffries (retired River Police PC) with the story of the Thames River Police, the first professional police organisation  in the world. In 1798 the government gave permission for it to be set up, but not the money. It was the sugar and rum merchants, who were being stolen blind by river pirates, who provided the £4,000 to run it for a year – and saved at least £100,000 in return (over £8m in today’s money). The river police’s rowing boats have been replaced by fast motor launches, and their main activity has switched from sugar and rum piracy to counter terrorism, but they are still in operation after 220 years. The museum, chock full of 200 yea rs of memorabilia, is inside a working police station so can only be visited by arrangement, but the visit was such a success we are considering another one - watch this space!
After our history lesson we wandered along to the Town of Ramsgate pub for a very nice lunch.  More history here - the notorious Judge Jeffreys (known as the ‘hanging judge’) was caught here in the 17th century, and outside you can still see the post to which condemned pirates were chained to drown as the tide rose.
We finished up at the Hermitage Community Moorings where, over tea / coffee and cakes, Keith Knox told us about the educations days we run here for local schoolchildren. Hermitage River Projects (the charitable arm of the Moorings) has partnered with River Thames Boat Project since 2015 to deliver river-based environmental education to school children in the Tower Hamlets and nearby areas, extending the geographical reach of our education work.
It was a lovely day out and we raised almost £300 for the charity!
Martha Tressler, Friends Administrator
New Friends Leaflet
Our new Friends leaflet is hot off the press – this will be a significant tool  in our drive to increase membership of the Friends. The leaflet includes an important message about why the Friends are important, worth repeating here with a thank you to those who are already members:
- When you join the Friends, you help the charity in several important ways. First, your subscription - and money raised through events - is 'unrestricted' money that directly helps the charity meet its day-to-day running costs, unlike grants or institutional gifts - usually given with a designated purpose for which the income has to be ring-fenced.
- Second, your monthly or annual subscription is regular income, so helps the charity be confident that it can meet its overheads without waiting for a special grant or donation. For a charity like RTBP with boats to keep maintained, that security means a lot.
- Finally, it demonstrates your belief in our cause, showing other funders and institutional donors that people believe what the charity does is important - which is a powerful argument when making a funding request.
A pdf of the complete leaflet is attached here if you would like to read it.
Martha Tressler, Friends Administrator
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To mark the 30 years of RTBP we have produced a recycled cotton bag. It’s the perfect gift for family and friends, easy to send and great for raising funds and to build awareness about the charity. The bags are available to buy at £7.50 each. They are available on the boat or from the office. They will also be available at upcoming events eg. the Sponsored Walk in September. Payment by cash, cheque or BACS. 