Transcription of South East and Eastern Area Newsletter
1 1 | 0800 018 2361 South East and Eastern Area Headquarters Royal Air Forces Association Atlas House, 41 Wembley Road Leicester LE3 1UT South East and Eastern Area Newsletter March 2018 RAF100 Celebrations at Runnymede 17 June 2018 To commemorate the Centenary of the formation of the Royal Air Force, South East and Eastern Area has organised a Service at the Air Force Memorial, Runnymede on Sunday 17 June 2018 commencing at 1045hrs. Sir Roger Austin, the Area President, will be attending along with Members of Commonwealth Air Forces and members of South East and Eastern Area Council. A reception will be held after the Service. Numbers attending the reception will be restricted, so places will be allocated on a first come, first served basis and a fee of 10 per person will be applicable for the reception.
2 The RAFA Presidents Band will provide the music at both the service and the reception. Standard Bearers are invited to attend. Interested members and Standard Bearers should contact Area Headquarters stating if they are attending the service and the reception or only the service. Royal Air Forces Association - RAF Centenary Service National Memorial Arboretum Staffordshire | Sunday 13 May 2018 | 1100 hrs 2 We invite you to join us at a once in a lifetime centenary service to commemorate and celebrate 100 years of the RAF. This significant and large-scale event will be held at the National Memorial Arboretum (NMA) in Alrewas, Staffordshire, on Sunday 13 May 2018, at 1100hrs. The event will include our Annual Remembrance Service.
3 We are hoping to have many of the Association's standard bearers attending and as a poignant finale to this key event, an RAF flypast has been requested. Tea and cake will then be provided. Tickets are available free of charge, but if your means allow, we would ask you to please consider making a donation to go towards the cost of running the event. Join us and commemorate all those that have served, are serving and their families in this historic year - be part of your RAF centenary. We hope to see you there. Book your tickets Find out more information about the event RAF100 Request to RAF stations Note from the Secretary General In the run up to the RAF100 celebrations, the Assistant Chief of the Air Staff (ACAS) has asked that I write regarding the provision of passenger flights, fly pasts, other auction and raffle prizes.
4 The RAF has a clear programme of activity and events to celebrate RAF100 that includes provision for the RAF Benevolent Fund, RAF Charitable Trust, the RAF Museum and the RAF Association. The Association placed its request for support from the RAF in September of 2017 and we are part of a joint venture: the RAF100 Appeal with the above charities and the RAF. Station Commanders and others absolutely cherish the local relationships with you but are being placed in a difficult position through repeated requests for support, which they have no hope of fulfilling. Therefore, may I ask that if there are exceptional and compelling requests for support that these are in the first instance channelled through my office by email to where I will make representation to ACAS on your behalf.
5 RAF100 Call for volunteers The RAF100 Appeal is a joint venture between The RAF, the RAF Association, the RAF Benevolent Fund, the RAF Charitable Trust and the RAF Museum working together to commemorate this historic event. What are we going to do? The Association will be fundraising in 11 cities across the UK. The activities will involve interacting with the public, raising awareness of the work of the RAF, collecting donations and offering RAF100 Appeal celebratory merchandise. Five of these collections will coincide with the National Aircraft Tour, displaying historic aircraft. City collection locations Dates The National Aircraft Tour will be present Cardiff Friday 18 May X Newcastle Saturday 19 May 3 York Friday 8 June Reading Friday 15 June London Tuesday 10 July X Bristol Friday 27 July Peterborough Friday 3 August Edinburgh Friday 17 August Birmingham Saturday 25 August X Glasgow Friday 31 August X Manchester Friday 14 September X We would love our members, supporters and the public to be at the heart of the celebrations in a city near them as we honour veterans and serving personnel with flypasts, parades and special events.
6 We need volunteers to help us collect for the charities that care for the RAF family. What next We have launched our RAF100 Appeal website to inform people about the appeal and the City Collections: We have also launched the volunteering recruitment webpage, this is where people can complete the registration form and submit the information to volunteer for an event/s: Let s do lunch! Let s do lunch! said the Aylesbury and Halton Branch at the start of the new year. RAFA Stn Officer (and Branch Entertainments Chairman) Kevin O Neill explains, We were in the middle of a really cold snap and were a bit concerned about some of our members who live alone, particularly after overhearing one lady tell her friend I don t bother cooking much these days, it doesn t seem worth it when there is just me on my own.
7 So the Branch started providing a free monthly hot winter warmer lunch for any member that wanted to come along. The first offering of beef stew and herby dumplings in January was followed by Italian Day in February with Ragu alla RAFA the main dish of the day. Having come up with the idea I then had to follow through with it so I have been doing the cooking although the delicious deserts have been conjured up by my wife Joy and Mrs Ali Gibbo Gibson said Kev. The lunch in March will have an Irish theme in honour of St Patrick s Day, so I hope they like steak and Guinness pie with colcannon! Each lunch has been attended by an average of 36 members with more coming each month and having promoted the event on nearby RAF Halton, they have been joined each time by different groups of Blue suiters who have mixed themselves in amongst the diners and chatted away for a couple of hours.
8 Kev explained further Although we started out just wanting to be sure that all our friends had a really hearty hot lunch at least once a month, it was obvious that it was an opportunity for so much more. It drew out some of our members who we rarely see in the winter months when it gets dark so early and they don t come out at night. It has also brought our perhaps more mature members together with currently serving personnel where they have got to know each other, made new friends, got people out of their homes and being active. Of course it also helps to 4 energise the serving personnel and demonstrate the positive benefits the Association can bring through membership and camaraderie . One member, Mrs Rita Chapman was overheard telling a serving SNCO, I love it here, I come to everything I can.
9 They make me feel so welcome and look after me so well, I have made lots of new friends here and oh, isn t the food just amazing? Involvement of the serving personnel has now spawned another initiative where a small team provide Techie Sessions to help those unsure about using modern IT, tablets and smartphones. At the moment they are running small personal workshops to help people engage through social media and stay in touch with friends, family and of course the Branch, safely and enjoyably. Kev went on, The lunches have proven to be such a success that they will continue through the year with menus suitable for each season. We are getting requests to join in from friends of members, and we are happy to coax them into joining the Association, and from other Branches nearby.
10 It is a great opportunity to bring everyone together, supporting each other. That s worth all the effort in my book. Wings Appeal Insurance Please find the RAF Association s Public Liability Insurance attached to this Newsletter . Please pass this document to your Branch s Wings Appeal Organiser as it may be requested by businesses and organisations when securing collection locations for the Wings Appeal this year. Wings Appeal items We are pleased to announce that two new pin badges will be available to support fundraising for the Wings Appeal in 2018. The first is the RAF100 Appeal pin badge, this will be extremely recognisable with the national media coverage of RAF100 events. The second pin also commemorates the RAF centenary with it being a badge of the World War I Sopwith Camel.
