Scott Jones from St Monans and his friends were recently presented with a trophy for being the fund-raisers of the year for the Fishermen’s Mission.
They had toured Scotland one week in May last year on their Honda C90 mopeds and had raised over £15,000 for the Fishermen’s Mission.
Scott was unable to attend the Mission AGM in London to receive the award so the Mission took the opportunity to catch up with him and to make the presentation to him and his friends on one of their weekends away, this time at a camp site in Aberfeldy.
Two of the team couldn’t be there but the others were all delighted at being honoured by the Mission in this way, and they all expressed their pleasure that their efforts had brought much needed funds to help the work in their part of Scotland.
‘We all have some reason to be thankful for the work of the Mission’ said Scott, ‘And my own family were greatly helped by them some years ago. We thought it would be good to combine our own adventure last year with a worthwhile cause, and were amazed at the support that we received, not just the money, but the goodwill and encouragement from so many people.’
Peter Donald, the Mission Port Officer for Fife, said that it had been a joy to work with Scott and his friends and to see how the Mission profile in the area had been raised by the publicity surrounding the efforts of the team. ‘Many people believe that the Mission has been ‘decommissioned’ along with many of the fishing boats’ he said ‘but in fact the Mission is more active than ever all around the coast, helping active, retired, and incapacitated fishermen and their families in these difficult financial times. Events like this remind us all that the Mission is alive and well, and also bring in the means to keep the work going.’
The next event on the Mission Fife programme will be the annual memorial service for lost fishermen which will be held at the Anstruther Fisheries Museum on Saturday 29th October.
Peter Donald
Mission Port Officer
Fishermens Mission
Fife
