RAF Valley teams compete in month-long rowing fundraiser for Fund

Last month, two RAF Valley teams went head-to-head for victory in a month-long virtual rowing challenge, raising over £1000 for the RAF Benevolent Fund.

The fundraiser was set up as a competition between RAF personnel at RAF Valley and partners at Lagan Aviation Contractors who are developing the new runway on base.

The RAF rowers completed a total of 50,892 meters against the Lagan team of rowers who reached a total of 261,367 meters between various members of staff involved on the project.

Sarah Hewitt is the Office Manager for Lagan Aviation and took part in the challenge. She said: “We came up with the idea of an October Row-A-Fest. My colleague Ian Stott, who is overseeing the lighting for the new runway, is a keen rower and so we decided to see the distance and length of time we could all row.

“We approached the Station about making this a joint venture. It was decided Lagan would compete against RAF Valley for fun and to see how well we could do! We placed a rowing machine in both venues and each day across the month people would compete to row as far as they could.”

Sarah continued: “I wanted to fundraise because I know how important the RAF Benevolent Fund is to RAF personnel. Ian is ex-Army and ex-RAF and values the Fund as a very worthwhile charity.”

The two teams paid to take part in the challenge and took a collection next to the rowing machines at the entrance gates. 

Sarah said: “The biggest challenge was rowing on a machine in public in the cold at 7am! But the highlight had to be seeing how much money we raised and the achievement of completing the month.”