Wick Young Fiddlers raise thousands for lifeboat service
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A group of young musicians raised more than £2800 for the RNLI by giving quayside performances in Wick and Helmsdale.
Wick Young Fiddlers held Tea on the Quay events at both harbours, entertaining the public with traditional tunes while selling fresh pancakes, teas and coffees. There were also donation boxes and raffles.
The Wick session went ahead in perfect weather on July 8 when £840 was collected.
A further £1983 was raised on September 3 as part of Helmsdale Harbour Day, this time in very windy conditions. The Helmsdale sum included a large donation from long-time RNLI supporter Garry Macmillan.
The resultant £2823 was presented this week when the fiddlers paid a visit to Wick lifeboat station.
Emily Morrison, who is a tutor as well as a performer, handed over the cheque to coxswain Allan Lipp alongside other crew members.
Emily and her mum, Tracey Morrison, are part of the local RNLI fundraising committee, while dad Gordon is a member of the lifeboat crew.
Tea on the Quay in Wick took place only two weeks after the town's annual RNLI Harbour Day which raised more than £14,000 for the lifeboat service.
Allan said: "It's great having such a nice group of young folk supporting us, and again it shows the strong community spirit here in Wick.
"Tea on the Quay here was a really special day and it was quite close after Harbour Day as well. For people to turn out, after already supporting us just a couple of weeks beforehand at Harbour Day, was quite something.
"But also down in Helmsdale – it's not a big community, and we got massive support there on what was quite a fresh day."
Wick lifeboat mainly covers an area stretching from south of Helmsdale up to the Pentland Firth, sometimes overlapping with other RNLI teams.
Allan says that historically there has always been strong support from Helmsdale for Wick lifeboat.
The Wick Young Fiddlers are pupils of local musician, composer and teacher Addie Harper as well as being tutored by Emily, and they receive piano accompaniment from Camilla Elder.
Support from the Caithness Community Fund enabled the Wick Young Fiddlers to buy all the PA equipment they needed for their Tea on the Quay appearances. The Caithness Community Fund is funded by ScottishPower Renewables from its wind farm at Halsary.
"We wouldn't have been able to do the events without that," Emily said. "Because we were going to be doing a tour round the harbours, we got the PA equipment for that and any other events that we'll be doing in the future.
"We've got some things in the works for next year but nothing totally confirmed yet."
