‘Goodness Gracious Great Balls of Fire’ charity event!

Staff at a Plymouth secondary school got a rare chance to step in to a fire fighter’s boots for the night after winning a drill evening at a recent fundraising event.

As part of The Fire Fighters Charity 70th Anniversary celebrations, a charity May Ball was held in Saltash to raise funds for the RNLI and the Chernobyl Children’s Lifeline charity, Sunflowers.

Two Stoke Damerel Community College staff, Cheryl Mann and Natalie Scott, bid the highest amount in the auction at the ball to win the drill night at Saltash station.

The group of seven were collected by Range Rovers and Jaguars from Roger Young in Saltash and chauffeured to the station where they received a safety briefing and were run through a basic fire drill. They were then taken to a real but staged fire to practice what they had learned.

The donations raised on the night of the ball were then presented to Wilma, representing the Saltash branch of the RNLI and Vanessa Donoghue from the Chernobyl Children’s Lifeline charity, Sunflowers.

“We were all really excited to have taken part in the drill night,” said event organiser, Nikki Radford, who works at Stoke Damerel Community College.

“We gained a real insight into the training and expertise of our fire fighters on a day-to-day basis.”

Nikki said the ball had been a great success with brilliant entertainment provided by local singer Rosina Russell, Turkish Dancer Filiz Zeren and live band Night School headed by teachers from Stoke Damerel.

“We received tremendous support from local businesses which helped us to raise £600 towards our charities through generous donations for raffle prizes, we’re already planning a similar event for next year,” Nikki added.

Rita McNally, EAL co-ordinator at Stoke Damerel Community College, who took part in the drill night said, “This is an amazing opportunity for us to pass on what we have learned to our students.”

If anyone would like to make a donation to The Firefighters Charity, they can do so by contacting Saltash Fire Station on 01752 843741.