Please raise your paddles and toast a Happy Christmas.

Hope it's a good one for you.

Every donation counts, but we received a very generous Christmas present from the Richmond Parish Lands Charity who have donated £3,000 to the club.

That takes the total to just over £30,000. Thanks to all.

The float is being assembled and painted, the team is growing but there's stilll space for most volunteers for the first fundraising event of 2006.

The Richmond Canoe Club float, representing the London Borough of Richmond, is taking part in the London Parade on New Year's Day. Around 750,000 people line the streets of Central London to watch the parade of around 100 floats making a colouful and enjoyable spectacle.

You can find details about helping out here. If you can make it, your help and support will be very much appreciated.

Our annual charge down the Thames from Shepperton

DETAILS - CLICK HERE - PDF FILE

Thanks again to all who have donated to fundraising for the new clubhouse in so many ways. With Gift Aid, the Christmas Party and bits and bobs (including a donation from a couple who live opposite the club) the total is now just over £27,500.

That's a phenomenal effort - big thanks.

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

And Richmond Paddlers could be seen wearing all manner of festive attire on the last paddling day before Christmas.

Saturday 24th December - wear a hat, tinsel, whatever you can find... and make the Thames an even jollier place this Christmas Eve.

The numbers have been tallied and the Christmas Party raised around £3500. An impressive figure and a huge thanks to everyone who contributed, be it organising, hosting, bidding, spending and so on.

If you did bid for an item, please pay up as soon as possible. Cheques to Sonia at the Club, and you can probably drop them off with the Galley on Saturday's.

We've still got lots of Club Christmas cards left. A bargain at 8 for £2.50 - available from the Galley.

And if you haven't returned your membership renewal, please do so ASAP.

Snaps from Saturday's Christmas party here.

Richmond Canoe Club officially achieved Top Club status from the BCU at the end of last week. Accreditation is nationally recognised as showing the club operates to high safety standards and offers a structured training programme for young people as well as encouraging them to participate in events both local and national.

Gaining Top Club status sends a signal to parents and schools that Richmond Canoe Club can be trusted to make paddling safe and fun. This award is a key step in our plans to formalise links with a number of schools in the Richmond area to encourage more young people to take up the sport. It is planned that these partnerships will start to operate in summer 2006.

Gaining this award took a lot of work and is a tribute to the work done by Trevor, Rox, Marcus, Alex, Tim and the other coaches involved in taking the Junior groups.

After Saturday’s very successful event (thanks to Sonia, Tim, Sean and all the others who arranged, helped out, supported and bid for items), we wanted to have a Christmas Party for those who couldn’t make the 10th or couldn’t get a ticket.

Very short notice, great if you can make it!

Christmas Quiz Night

Tuesday 20th December

From 7.30, questions starting at 8.15

Rose of York, Petersham Road, Richmond, TW10 6UY.

Carriages… depends when the Pub closes!

RSVP by email to Peter Hutchison by Saturday 17th as we’d like an idea of numbers.

Please tell friends in the club - we've sent out an email, but don't have everyone's email address.

If any paddlers are planning on tackling the Dusi Marathon, January 2006, club member Nicola Park would like to hear from you. Nicola is conducting a research project, funded by the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, to discover the secret behind the Dusi’s success and to document the race’s wider impact upon the local community and tourism industry. Nicola will also be writing articles about the race for the British paddling press on her return, so this will be a good opportunity to shout about Richmond's presence on the world paddling scene.

Please email Nicola if you will be around for the race, or if you know any other paddlers who would be interested in being interviewed for the project.

So share your special moments, send in the snaps and we'll post them on the web.

Short and sweet.

If you have a ticket for tomorrow's Christmas Party but don't bring it you will not get in.

BRING YOUR TICKETS

Now here´s a big challenge. New Year´s Day, 10 o´clock in the morning and you´re rattling a bucket to raise funds for the new clubhouse while taking part in the the New Year´s Day Parade.

Sounds like fun?

Richmond CC have offered to represent the London Borough of Richmond. Tim has arranged for a flatbed trailer to be pulled by his tractor. The Association of Canoe Traders will provide a load of gear and some bottomless boats that can be worn around the waist as you walk along. (You´ll need to take care - Peter
B may be running along behind, try to fibreglass up the holes!)

We need:
TWENTY bucket rattlers to take money from the good people of London.

Half a dozen people to help with decorating the float on the 29th or 30th.

It`s a great opportunity to raise more funds for the club. Promote paddling. Try and clear your head after New Year´s Eve Celebrations.

If you can help and are free, send Tim an email.

More details about the parade here.

Chilly out there, and a bit wary of braving the Thames. Well you could go somewhere warmer?

Norman Dunroy and former RCC member Anna McCormack are taking part in the Baja Traverse Adventure Race from 5-9 December. The event involves kayaking, canyoneering, mountain biking, trekking and orienteering. Together, Norman, Anna and Polish adventure racer Maciek Olesinski make up Team Nike ACG Endure. You can catch the full details here.

And if you think DW is for wimps, you could join Pat Brophy down under in the Murray Marathon - 404-kms, 5-days down the Murray River in Yarrawonga. Starts 27 December. Pat's paddling with two other guys in TK1's (Discovery's). They only started this year, so Pat has passed on the Peter Barnes style which will doubtless put them in good stead. More info.

And so a competition is born. If you're heading to warmer climates this winter, take the Elkington-Cole Limited Edition Club T-shirt, take a photo and pop it in the box at the club marked "I went somewhere warmer with my Richmond t-shirt and want to make all the club members jealous." Or send it by email.

Look forward to receiving the pictures.