Come and see our boat and meet our volunteers at the Leicester Riverside Festival on the 2nd and 3rd June 2018.

We will be selling cream teas, cakes and coffees.

Please come and support us!

We also share the wonderful news that our Trust has been selected by the incoming High Sheriff of Leicestershire, Diana Thompson, to be one of the principle charities their office will be supporting over the coming year.  This will lead to the Trust being involved in several events and will be a fantastic way of raising our profile locally.

We look forward to telling you more about this generous support in our next newsletter.

We have been successful in applying for the Tesco Bags of Help Grant Scheme. The scheme allows local customers to vote and ultimately decide which cause or project they would like to benefit from the fund each time they shop.

The project or cause with the highest number of votes will receive £4,000, second place £2,000 and third place benefits from a donation of £1,000.

Voting has been taking place at Tesco stores local to Loughborough and the vote ended on 30th April.  We will let you know where we were placed as soon as we receive the results.

Three new members of staff have joined the Trust.  After the retirement of Richard Teare, Tim Marren joined us in September 2017 and has taken on the role of CEO.  He brings a wealth of experience to the position, having a background in public sector management and the charitable sector.

Tina Mist, our Administrator, moved on to pastures new and we extend our warm thanks for all that she did for us.  Her replacement, Denise Adamson, joined us in March after a career at John Lewis and shares Tim’s enthusiasm preparing for the 2018 season.

Melissa Hemmings joins us on a contract basis to cover Gemma Trevethick’s maternity leave.  As we write, Gemma has yet to have her baby and we look forward to keeping you updated about her new arrival. Melissa is an author and illustrator with a marketing background, having run her own media company, and is looking forward to helping create more exposure for the Trust until Gemma’s return.

They join skipper, Chris Morton, and we wish them every success in their respective roles.

Winter 2017 saw a packed winter maintenance programme.

All three boats necessitated significant work; this included a complete rewire of Symphony, hatch repairs, painting, varnishing, general repairs and renovation. The biggest challenge was the installation of a new engine in Serenade.

All three boats were MCA inspected in November 2017 and, due to the unstinting efforts of our volunteers, successfully passed.