Open Day Sat 11th July 2009 - Kingston Regatta

Richmond Venturer will be moored alongside Frère Jacques.  Open from 10 am to 6pm.  The Mullen family will be joining us again with their Irish fiddle music.
 

As one of the Mayor's charities we benefited from a Royal Military School of Music Summer Concert at Kneller Hall. 

For details of more concerts go to www.army.mod.uk/music

The Mayor can be seen greeting Sue Bailey and Pamela Chapman as they arrived at Richmond Bridge as during their sponsored walk along the Thames Path.

Drawn by the River
Sue Bailey’s Riverside Walk - April & May 2009

To mark the 21^st Anniversary of the River Thames Boat Project, Hampton artist Sue Bailey is planning to walk the length of the Thames path from the source to the Thames Barrier, a distance of 184 miles, stopping to sketch and paint along the way to record her journey. Her plan is to start at the end of April, so if you’re on the tow path please keep a look out for her. She anticipates it will take a month to complete the walk, after which there will be an exhibition of selected art work.

Click on the justgiving logo or picture to sponsor Sue on her walk in aid of the River Thames Boat Project!

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This year we had 18 volunteers who were nominated for an award.

When asked by the organisers what all of our volunteers mean to us we replied:

Read our Winter 2008 Newsletter

Download our highlights of 2008

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Open Days Sat & Sun 12th & 13th July 2008- Kingston Regatta

Richmond Venturer will be moored alongside Frère Jacques.  Come along on Sunday and be entertained with fiddle music from the Mullen Family.

Open Day Mon 26th May 2008

Richmond Venturer will be open for viewing from 11.00am until 5.00pm on Bank Holiday Monday 26th May.  We will be moored in our own dock at the entrance to Canbury Gardens by the railway bridge in Kingston.  Also taking place alongside us in the gardens will be the annual Kingston Green Fair.  You can gain entrance to Venturer without having to pay the entrance fee to the fair.

The Kingston Green Fair has been going for over 10 years and annually attracts 15,000 visitors.  It is the UK's most successful one day green family event.  For more details about the fair please click on the following link: http://kingstongreenfair.org.uk/index.html

Petersham Festival 22nd to 30th March 2008

Building on the success of the first festival last year, the organisers are planning an ambitious and exciting programme for 2008. They will be holding a wide variety of events in many locations within Petersham including performances by top international artists soprano Emma Kirkby, recorder player Michala Petri and flautist Guo Yue.

The organisers are kindly supporting the Boat Project by donating 20% of the proceeds from the Chinese Feast at Petersham Nurseries on Easter Monday 24 March.  For full details of all the events please visit the festival website: www.petershamfestival.org  and please tell your family and friends!

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Kingston Volunteer Centre - People Count Awards December 2007

12 of our volunteers were recognised at the Annual Volunteer Awards ceremony held by Kingston Volunteer Centre.  The awards were presented by his Worshipful The Mayor, Shiraz Mirza to crew and volunteers who had given up more than 12 days of their time during the year.  Well done!!
 

Highlights from 2007 - A Summary

Thanks to the kind and generous support of our donors and volunteers 2007 was another successful and busy year for the River Thames Boat Project.  In preparation for the cruising season the Richmond Venturer came out of the water for two weeks in March for a survey and our volunteers painted the hull and topsides.  We then ran eight crew training workshops for 65 volunteers and were very pleased to achieve Investors’ in People for the second time.

Following the very heavy rain in July and strong river flows that followed, we had to cancel nine bookings in July and August.  Our clients were very understanding and we were able to reschedule seven of these bookings. Despite this setback, we took 93 bookings from schools, day care centres, self help groups and residential homes and received 2,150 clients and visitors on board the Venturer during the season.  We know from the feedback we receive from both clients and volunteers that the trips are very enjoyable and therapeutic.

In addition to running the trips and schools’ activities we held three open days on board the Venturer.  We participated in Get Afloat organised by Thames Ahead, the Teddington River Festival and the Barge Association (DBA) 15^th anniversary.  We also took our stand to the St Margarets’ Fair.  Our annual Friends event, on board the Venturer in Richmond on Great River Race day, provided us with an opportunity to thank our supporters and volunteers and to give them the chance to watch the race from the boat.

Client Quotes:

“The peace and calm of the day was very beneficial and the weather was perfect.  The crew were friendly and professional and those [clients] that steered the boat thoroughly enjoyed it.  Having the binoculars available was good.  Thank you for a wonderful day and we can’t wait to go again.”

“It was a wonderful day giving the young carers lots of fun.”          

“As always, we had two wonderful days experiencing our Teddington Adventure!  Our sincere thanks to everyone aboard the Richmond Venturer for making our visit so enjoyable.  The children thoroughly enjoyed their first trip in year 5.”

 “I have asked everyone who attended their thoughts: all had a really lovely positive day. Thank you very much.”

The Big Ideas workshop at our 2006 AGM highlighted a strong desire to help isolated individuals and families (until then we had only worked with organised groups).  Acting on this aspiration and an increasing number of enquires from individuals we developed and ran a successful pilot programme in 2007.  We hope to run more of these trips next year and increase take up of our existing programmes for schools and young carers’ support groups.

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The Great River Race 2007
Saturday 8th September
 

Bamber Gascoigne & his wife Christina, long standing supports of the River Thames Boat Project, rowed 22 miles from Ham to Greenwich with Boat Project Trustee Hilary Pickles, Scott Pereira and Jos Thomson. They raised over £2,000 to sponsor places for children and disabled people to enjoy a trip on board the Richmond Venturer.

They are to be congratulated in winning their class "Historic Ship's Boat" beating amongst others crews from HMS Victory and Cutty Sark.  Well done!

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Great British Duck Race Sept 2nd 2007

Sunday 2nd September saw the first ever Great British Duck Race on the Thames outside Hampton Court Palace.  Over two thousand spectators came to Hampton Court to bask in the sunshine, cheer on their duck and have a quacking good time!

Over 165,000 ducks were released from Molesey lock smashing the Guinness World Record for the 'World's Biggest Charity Duck Race,' previously held by Singapore, but also raising money for various good causes.

At least 60 ducks (final numbers not yet known) raced down the course for the Boat Project.

Once the winning ducks were verified by a Guinness World Record adjudicator, the clean-up operation clicked into gear as ducks were hooked, packed and ready to be used again next year.

A Duck Race of this magnitude has never been attempted in the UK before now but, in close partnership with the River Thames Alliance and the Environment Agency, it will be the first of many; it is hoped that the event, and money raised, will continue to grow and flourish.

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Richmond Venturer

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Boat Project Volunteer Wins Award

Kieran Poynter, Chairman of PricewaterhouseCoopers commented:
 “The Volunteering Awards Scheme is now a firmly established way for PricewaterhouseCoopers to reward our people who give up their spare time to serve charity and community organisations.”

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