Nith Inshore Rescue Team have been given a helping hand from Dumfries community champion Ewan Fraser and staff at the Toll Bar shop in the town’s New Abbey Road.
The popular Dumfries and Galloway businessman saw the latest fundraising efforts pay off when £500 was handed over to the team’s Callum Dowell and Kelly Rae, who brought along a rescue boat to mark the occasion.
The store’s manageress Sylvia Newlands has helped lead the support for the rescue service as 10 years ago her teenage grandson Macauley McQueen died in the Nith.
The volunteers at Nith Inshore Rescue Team worked tireless to find him and his grateful family, friends, staff and customers have raised funds for the inshore boat in his memory ever since.
Ewan and his wife, Maureen, and the staff all knew the much-missed Macauley growing up. Tragically he died after falling into the River Nith three days before Christmas 2014 and was found five weeks later on a beach near Glencaple.
Cash raised from second hand book sales and a tombola have all contributed to the £500.
It takes the total given to Nith Inshore Rescue by the grocery store, owned by Ewan and Maureen Fraser, to close to £6,000 in recent years.
Ewan said: “We are all delighted to be able to hand over such a bumper cheque to such a worthy cause in Macauley’s name.
“We want to thank all our customers for helping make the donation possible as the inshore rescue service is vital to our community and the volunteers do an amazing job.”
The busy store is always working to help the local community. Over the past few years, the staff and customers have raised funds for a potentially life-saving defibrillator installed outside the shop for public use, a new public noticeboard, and cash aid for other local worthy causes – including Dumfries and Galloway Blood Bikes and Moffat Mountain Rescue Team.
After Macauley’s death and an outpouring of fundraising, Nith Inshore Lifeboat volunteers bought a new lifeboat, which they named Cauley, and vital equipment in his name.