events /

The Cumberland Ale
Keswick MOUNTAIN Festival 2009
Wednesday 13th May to Sunday 17th May

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Final Amount Raised: £6500

The Lakeland 214 Challenge Cheque Presentation and Walk

The Lakeland 214 Challenge was marked on Saturday 16th May when members of The Wainwright Society met at Braithwaite with representatives from SARDA Lakes and SARDA England for an enjoyable walk meet led by Lindsay Shaw.

photo by Jayne Hardy - click to enlarge

The walk commenced with the party taking the old mine road up along Stoneycroft Gill as light rain began to fall, and on to High Moss, where the sky slowly cleared and the opportunity was taken for a group photo.

photo by Jayne Hardy - click to enlarge

The summit of Outerside was our next objective, before a descent over Stile End and on to Barrow, with a return to Braithwaite.

Society members were able to chat with the SARDA volunteers on the day and learn about the dedication required to be able to join a SARDA team as a dog handler, or as one of the Dogsbody volunteers who act as casualties during training sessions. Our thanks are expressed to the SARDA representatives who joined us on the day.

l-r: Les Telford (SARDA – Lakes), Peter Linney (The Wainwright Society Secretary), Sir Chris Bonington, Lindsay Shaw (Society Member who raised the idea of SARDA being this year’s chosen charity by the Society) and Ian Thompson (SARDA – England).
photo by Andrew Stainthorpe, The Wainwright Society

A second gathering took place in the afternoon, at the Keswick Lodge Hotel, when the Society was honoured by the appearance of Sir Chris Bonington who kindly assisted with the presentation of cheques for £2000 each to SARDA (England) and SARDA (Lakes).

The Society expresses thanks to Sir Chris Bonington for his support on the day, and also to Lindsay Shaw who led the walk meet and originally proposed that the Society might raise funds for the SARDA teams.

Many thanks to all of those who took part in, made personal donations, or raised sponsorship for the Challenge.

Les Telford, Secretary of SARDA (Lakes), following the recent sending of a second cheque, wrote:

'I am delighted to acknowledge receipt of a further cheque today for £1250.00 from the event in May. Please pass on our sincere thanks to all your members for their great generosity towards our work. Our 'willing workers and faithful friends', as Wainwright described the dogs of Lakeland, would be unable to continue operating without such assistance, and we are extremely grateful for the efforts of so many of your members on our behalf.'