Today, the 7th of February, the North West Charity Paddle raised £2555.08 thanks to paddlers, water users and the public.

We were over powered by the success, the amount of support shown throughout the paddling community was astonoshing. Thank you all for supporting us on this.

The day was well attended, on the water coaching was a hit, with many GB freestyle athletes offering there knowledge. The rolling Competition was won by Bren Orton, with 16 rolls in 30 seconds. Following up with some inspirational presentations from Daz Clarkson, Claire O’Hara, Dave Bainbridge and Max Bilbow.  The raffle was a hoot, with loads and loads of fantastic prizes.

To those lucky people, we hope you make full use of your prizes, they took alot of begging, but it was well worth it.

There is a huge list of thank yous, but to anyone who gave up their time to offer support for the North West Charity Paddle, donated prizes or said a few words. But the real thanks must go to those who dug deep in the pockets and donated their cash.

We have one final request though. If you have any photos which may be worth sharing, the please do, circulate the images and plaster them everywhere. We would also be interested in having copies, either email them at charitypaddle@mail.com or send them via disk. Either way, please contact us on above.

From all of us at the NWCP, thank you for a special day.

We have created a short video to show what the North West Charity Paddle stands for. Please watch and if possible, link the video where possible.

Thank you

We have now finalised a rough plan of events for the North West Charity Paddle. see here for details.

Hi All
We have now got the Fun Day arranged and booked as required and the date for this will be Sunday 7th February 2010 kicking off at 10:30. Just to remind everyone, all funds raised from this day will be going directly to the Cumbria Flood Recovery Fund.

The format of the day will be to meet and greet each other and get together to meet up with old friends and meet new friends to have a simple easy going paddle and play about along the river, the scope of which for the purpose of the fun day will be from the large weir at the top of the Burrs site down to the activity centre.

In order to keep running cost to an absolute minimum we are inviting canoe clubs to come along as their club trip with anyone else who would care to join you for an informal paddle and general lark about at Burrs activity centre in Bury Lancashire. We ask that you dig deep in your pockets and make a suggested donation of £5 per paddler for this get together.

There will be all sorts of bits and pieces going on along the river including hints and tips from past and present members of the GB Freestyle team along with loads of coaches available for advice.
Other activities in the pipeline (which are just awaiting confirmation) are demo boats, hints and tips on paddling photography along with other things which we will update you on as we get nearer the day.

After the shenanigans on the river (around 2pm) we will be holding a raffle in the function room at Burrs activity centre with a top prize of a Jackson kayak which has been very kindly donated by the man himself. Cost of tickets for the raffle will be £5 for a strip of 5.

For those of you wishing to travel up on the Saturday who require accommodation Burrs AC have very kindly opened up the bunkhouse with all proceeds from the use of the bunkhouse going into the charity fund. The cost for the bunkhouse will be (you guessed it) £5 per person. Use of the bunkhouse will be on a first come first served, pre-booked basis so can you please let us know as soon as possible if you require it.

Refreshments during the day will be available from either the cafe at Burrs Activity Centre or the onsite public house.

There will be plenty of parking available at Burrs AC and Burrs have agreed to open the extra parking field for our use if numbers require it.

In order to gauge numbers so that we can prepare accordingly can you please let us know if you will be coming along and supporting this worthy cause. You can contact us by emailing us at charitypaddle@mail.com