Our regular readers will recall that young teenager Amber Gibson of Darwen, was crowned Rose Queen of St Cuthbert’s Church, Earnsdale Road, Darwen in June last year, and immediately and very kindly pledged to raise money for the Bolton Mountain Rescue Team and the RNLI in her Rose Queen Year of Office 2009-2010.
Since this time her mother Gill Gibson has kept the team up to date with her daughters fantastic fundraising events, which we have featured on this website.
Unfortunately due to other team commitments we were unable to attend the year end celebrations of Ambers year in office on June 12th last month, and in place invited Amber, her mother Gill and their friends and supporters to our Ladybridge Hall Base / HQ for an evening as our guests.
We were very pleased when this evening, Amber, her mother and other guests turned up to be met by representatives of the team at our Base / HQ.
Amber aged 14, who is a member of Springvale Ramblers, and her mother Gill, were joined by fellow St Cuthbert’s Church, Darwen, members Lisa Nightingale and her daughter Briony Nightingale, Justine Moorhouse and her daughter Mollie Moorhouse and Shirley Speakman and her grand-daughter Caitlin Glover. (Briony, Mollie and Caitlin all having formed Amber’s Rose Queen Retinue during her year of office)
Present to meet them was Team President Bob Hutchinson, Life Vice President Tony McNally, Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE, Treasurer Johanne Lamb, Secretary Gillian Gregory, team members Mark Parry, Chris Tennant, Michael O’Brien, Martin Banks, Helen Rigby and Marcin Zadlo, and Support Group member Peter Critchley.
Team Life Vice President personally thanked Amber for her support of the team, and presented her with an engraved plaque of thanks.
Amber then totally surprised us when she announced and then handed over a substantial donation of £707.50p to the team. (Our colleagues in the RNLI, specifically RNLI Blackpool, have also benefitted from Amber’s kindness, as she has also raised the same amount, £707.50p for the RNLI Blackpool)
Amber and her guests then had a full tour of our Base / HQ and a good look (and play!) with all our search and rescue equipment.
The whole team membership extends its sincere thanks to Amber for her much appreciated support of the team over this last year, and to all her supporters in turn who helped her to raise this tremendous amount of money for the team and the RNLI.
At the conclusion of her visit we learnt from Gill Gibson, that Amber’s successor as St Cuthbert’s Church Rose Queen 2010-2011 is Megan Brandon of Sunnyhurst Lane, Darwen, and that she in turn has decided to raise money for the team in her year of office, jointly with raising money for the North West Air Ambulance. It transpires that Megan was rescued by the team on Sunday 28th January 2007, when out hillwalking in the company of her father she collapsed. The team and the NWAA alongside NWAS (Lancashire) jointly responded to the Stepback Brook, Darwen Moor location with Megan being safely rescued and quickly taken to hospital. (See website ’news’ article Incident 29-2007, dated Sunday 28th January 2007)
Regards Amber’s great support of the team, please also see website ’news’ items dated Sunday 23rd May 2010, Tuesday 16th February 2010 and Tuesday 15th September 2009)
