Sybil Howard
Sybil belongs to: Cullercoats Community Centre
Sybil was born in the West End of Newcastle. She moved to Cullercoats in the mid 1970s with her husband. Sybil is an active member of Cullercoats community life. She helped raise funds and build the Cullercoats Community Centre and helps organise fundraising events for the RNLI.
Sybil was interviewed by Carl Greenwood on 1 March 2006. The interview took place at Cullercoats Community Centre and lasted 26 minutes and 15 seconds.
Involvement with the RNLI
"I’ve been involved with that since about ’82"
I’ve been involved with that since about ’82. When it got to’82 and I was on the committee, one day I was approached by one of the girls, and I knew her, and she was on the lifeboat, and I’m going to admit to a dreadful thing- I knew nothing about lifeboats. I knew there was a lifeboat down on the bay but I hadn’t ever been there, and as I say, I knew nothing about it, I originally was a townie, so when she asked me I couldn’t understand why, but she said well, “come along and meet the girls, and see.” And I went along, I think it was 1982, the year, and I met them and they were rather nice and they meet at each other’s houses on a rota scale, you know, once a month and they did a little bit of fundraising here, and a little bit of fundraising there, and a flag day, and a knocking on doors week, I used to call it, when you had a flag week and you had to go around collecting.
And I was there for a while, and they had a fair, Christmas Fair which they had in the Berkeley Tavern, and I still didn’t really get a job, if you know what I mean and I just waited for them to say, I liked listening to the committee meetings for maybe five or six meetings and I found out how people think and what’s the best thing to say or, just, you know, you’re new to it so you just listen and you take it in. I think that’s most important, I do, really. Never mind, we had a lovely chairwomen, who I loved, and she’s passed away now. She said, “would you mind buttering the scones,” and I said, “not at all.” So I was told what knife to bring to cut the scones, what knife to bring to butter it, This is still a joke among them because I tell them this often, “I have buttered, and baked, and done more scones than they’ve had hot dinners.”
But I did it and apparently it was alright, so the next year I was allowed to raffle a little doll, walk around and approach people, you know, and I remember one elderly lady said, “oh, I don’t think so, I don’t have any young children in the family.” And I’m not rude or anything and I just looked at her and said, “but, you know, if you wanted, you could take it to the Rake Lane, take it to the children’s ward,” and she sort of looked at me. And I think maybe I shouldn’t have said that, but I just thought, “well, if you won it and you took it along there, wouldn’t they be happy?” So she won it, and she bought a ticket and she won it and she took it to the hospital. That was brilliant. And from then on, I was just one of the guild, they’re called the Ladies’ Lifeboat Guild and they’re the chief fundraisers- the official fundraisers of the RNLI.
Sybil has 8 memories in the memorynet:
Sybil's memories with a Women theme:
Involvement with the RNLI
- Harbour Day
Sybil's other memories:
Cullercoats Community CentreThis memory has these themes:
Community | Volunteering | Women
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