More than 350 shipping people descended on London Docklands for the last day of London International Shipping Week to take part in the fourth OSCAR Dragon Boat Race. Twenty-four teams, some sun, some rain, a barbecue and lots of rowing. Result? £150,000 raised for charity.
We’re actually a little bit stunned by the money raised. When you fundraise for an event, you cross your fingers and hope that people will feel encouraged to donate – to put their hands in their pockets and give what they can. To listen to your story. Because that’s what started this whole campaign for Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children. Oscar’s story. Oscar received life-saving care from the amazing people at GOSH from a very young age. The team there are continuing to conduct ground-breaking research at the bedside as I type; helping other children like my son, who is now 18 thanks to their work, to survive childhood leukaemias and other immune diseases.
£150,000 is a huge amount of money to raise and a great way to end LISW17. It means that the shipping industry has now raised £1.65million for Great Ormond Street Hospital.
A heartfelt thanks to everyone who donated, to the teams from AET, AM Nomikos, Arrow Shipbroking, the Baltic Exchange, Borealis, Campbell Johnston Clark, CI Connect, C Waves, Department for Transport, Hill Dickinson, Ince & Co, K Line, LISCR (who kindly sponsored the bar), Lloyd’s Register, Lomar Shipping (who took the title!), Moore Stephens, John Swire & Sons, Nectar Group, Neon Underwriting, NEPIA, Skuld P&I, our own Spinnaker Global, Thomas Miller and Union Maritime (whose team raised the most money), to Robin King at the Baltic Exchange for providing the band Papa George, to Docklands Sailing & Watersports Centre, the GOSH team, and everyone who helped bring the day together. It was a great experience for everyone involved.
Helen McCaughran, a first-time rower for Spinnaker Global’s team ‘Parry’s Pirates’ and our Business Development Consultant for HR Consulting, describes her experience below.
“I was lucky enough to be chosen as one of the rowers for the Spinnaker team and made my way with the team to the Docklands Sailing and Watersports centre. Given that I’d never rowed as part of a team before, I was a little nervous to say the least! I hoped I wouldn’t let the team down or embarrass myself by falling out of the boat, or being the one that was out of time. Luckily we’d had a little practise in the office before we left, although a mock up dragon boat made up of 11 chairs in the breakout area with a ruler in place of an oar is no real substitute for 11 nervous souls on the open water!
“Not to fear: once ‘Parry’s Pirates’ hit the water and we were given some stern instructions from our tiller we were ready for the off. Our first race against Moore Stephens started well and we were first across the line in 1m 28 seconds. “Pretty impressive start,” I thought, “maybe we’ve got a chance of winning the whole thing…” As we watched the next 22 teams race, I realised that we were up against some strong competition; times sub 1m 20 sec were commonplace and after our second race we knew we weren’t in with a chance of making the final, unlike the winners Lomar. We had a fantastic day, raised a load of money for charity, bonded with team mates…what’s not to love? Count me in for next year!”
You can view photos from the day at https://www.flickr.com/photos/spinnakerglobal/albums/72157685344476712 and https://www.flickr.com/photos/159462195@N05/
Phil Parry, Chairman, Spinnaker Global & Founder of the OSCAR Campaign
