AN ANNUAL fundraiser has made a splash in raising an incredible £11,000 for Dunbar RNLI.

Crowds of people lined the town’s High Street to watch the Lifeboat Fete parade and then flocked to the harbour to see Emily Hodd crowned Lifeboat Queen.

Entertainment was provided on dry land while supporters had the chance to meet the volunteer lifeboat crew, climb aboard the all-weather lifeboat (ALB), John Neville Taylor, and see close up the inshore lifeboat (ILB), David Lauder.

Guests of honour were Moira Porter and Sheon Cairns, who last year stepped down from their roles on the fundraising committee after 25 and 26 years respectively, while David Kittrick was presented with an award after recently retiring as a launch authority.

The RNLI relies on donations from the public to carry out its lifesaving work and Dunbar’s annual fete is the station’s biggest fundraiser of the year.

Mark Lees, Dunbar RNLI lifeboat management group chair, said: ‘We had another great day at the station where we managed to thank the community of Dunbar for all their fantastic support over the year.

“It’s always great to see how many people turn up to support the station and I know that our coxswain Gary Fairbairn, the crew, the fundraising team and all the shop staff really appreciate it.

“We couldn’t run the station without the community and we are always humbled by the response, year after year.

"I’d also like to thank the whole team at Dunbar Lifeboat Station for all the effort they put into the event.

“It takes the whole team, along with some other ever reliable supporters to put it on and they always manage to deliver a really fantastic community day out.”

The group was also supported by Tarmac, who presented a cheque on board the lifeboat.

Alistair Punton and Kieran Fairbairn, Tarmac employees, presented a cheque for £1,688 to Veronica Davies, fundraising committee chair.

She said: “Thanks to everyone who supported Dunbar RNLI in any way to enable our annual Lifeboat Fete to be such a huge success.

"To all of the people who donated money and prizes, the harbour residents for allowing the obvious disruption, everyone who gave up their time to erect, man and dismantle stalls and, last but not least, the Dunbar community and beyond who attended the fete, stayed with us through the showers and helped us to raise funds to enable Dunbar RNLI to continue their lifesaving work.”